She's A Lady
by louigan
Summary: And ladies shouldn't be messed with. Louigan, LouisexOC, GenexOC, CourtneyxOC, other minor pairings; M/M, F/F, abuse, language, probably way too dramatic for the Bob's Burgers universe.
1. Chapter 1

Slamming her locker shut, the girl clad in green and pink huffingly trudged away.

"But, Louise!"

Louise turned around to face her blonde friend.

"No, Logan. Before you say anything, just…no. Shut the hell up." She turned on her heel, walking away once more. The blonde followed after her, determined to win his friend's trust- and more importantly, heart- back.

"Look, Logan," Louise said sternly, "I know you were just trying to make my 18th birthday a little less suckish, but a horde of lesbian exotic dancers in my dad's restaurant wasn't exactly what I pictured would happen."

He sighed, and then began to whine. "But I did it because of that one night we were drinking and-"

"I said that while I was drunk, Logan! I wasn't serious when I said I wished a bunch of dancing lesbians would work at the restaurant! The last time we had dancing people in there, someone had a hernia! I don't even LIKE girls that way…" Louise said, before mumbling "probably" under her breath.

Louise looked right at him. "I know you got held back senior year a whopping three times, but just because you're a super super super senior doesn't mean you can do whatever the hell you want."

The man groaned as she walked away knowing that the chaos last night would cost him a week of the silent treatment, maybe even a month considering the circumstances. He punched a locker before getting looks from other students as they whispered cruel nothings about him to each other quietly.

* * *

"So…last night was—"

"Courtney, shut up."

Louise glared at her friend. She still didn't understand why she hung out with this annoying prude. She, like Logan, had been held back, but only a year. Louise wondered why God would be so cruel as to hold back all the annoying people in her life. All it meant was more ass kicking for her, not that she didn't mind it of course. Courtney looked down at her lunch tray with disinterest.

"Moving on, then…" the girl with the purple and black streaks in her hair mumbled.

It was a full two minutes before Louise couldn't take it anymore. Courtney was her only source of venting to. If she told Tina, she'd get the worst advice. If she told her mom, her mom would be just as irritated as she was last night. Louise growled, "Fine, what were you gonna say?" The spoken-to girl looked back up, a bit surprised Louise brought it back up after being shot down.

"You know he didn't mean to piss you off, right? You're, like, his only friend. All the others graduated years ago, and now he gets shit for being 21 and still in high school." Louise sighed at the girl's observation.

"I know…I just wish he actually used the brain under that blonde hair of his before_ flinging_ himself into commitment," Louise mumbled, poking at the ungodly blob of toxic acid that they called food. "How does this shit get past the health inspectors?"

"I heard the school bribes them so they can spend more time during school hours doing academics instead of being forced to close the school for a week. I think one of the higher ups is dating one, actually. Hey, you still talk to your brother, right?" asked Courtney.

"Oh God, not this again. Yes, Courtney, I do. He still works at the restaurant, remember? Just because he got his own little apartment right outside of town doesn't mean he'll never see us again. He's growing up. We all are. And it sorta sucks; not the way I thought things would play out, honestly."

Courtney absentmindedly ate the food she brought with from home. "I haven't been over there in a while, you know that! Finals just ended and my dad made me study my ass off. Kinda hard when all you hear through the paper thin walls is your dad banging your step mom." Louise pushed aside her tray. "Hey, aren't you gonna eat?" her friend asked. Louise glared at her, "What do you think? Besides, I just eat at home now. This stuff is worse than my dad's food, and that's saying something." The bunny ears of her hat budged a bit, as if to make a point.

"Okay…I sorta…thought it was good, but…" She trailed on. "Oh, did you hear about that new girl? The one that just transferred into our senior class?" Courtney said with excitement. She was a bit of a gossip, something she acquired when her friend, Tammy, graduated. "No, I didn't, what makes you think I give a shit? It's probably some pansy nerd chick, anyway. We never get anybody interesting in transfers. I think the only one that was neat was that stupid Canadian. God, he gave me so much blackmail on that country without even knowing it." Louise put her feet up on the table, ignoring the glares from the passing security guard. Courtney got up. "C'mon, it's time for P.E." The bunny hat girl groaned in annoyance. "But I just got comfy!" Her friend laughed before dragging Louise away to the women's locker room.


	2. Chapter 2

"I'm telling you, Courtney, he's gay," Louise said as she opened the small locker, pulling out gym clothes and slipping her shirt off, using one hand to hold her bunny hat in place. "He's, like, the epitome of gay. How did you not notice this?" Courtney whined while flattening out the front of her gym shirt, "But he's sooo cute!" Her friend rolled her eyes in response, tossing her shirt carelessly back into where the other shirt had come.

"He's a year younger than us."

" Says the girl with the 21 year old boyfriend. Hurry up, already. You take forever to-"

"Jesus Christ, he's not my…" Louise froze after a few moments when she heard her friend fall silent in the middle of her sentence. "I take forever to what?" Louise turned her head to Courtney, who in turn was looking at the door with a shocked expression. As soon as the locker room went silent, Louise turned her head in the same direction as everyone else. "What the hell are you loo-"

A tall, aggressive looking redhead with spiky short hair was the object of everyone's attention. Piercings and tattoos adorned her toned body; the chains on her boots made her footsteps a bit noisy. Louise raised an eyebrow, smirking. _Now, see, this is more my style when I said interesting transfer students._ The taller girl gripped a shirt in one hand as she shoved aside a girl in the way. As she made her way past a few girls (who now ignored her, in fear of getting hurt), she stopped at the locker next to Louise's. Before she was able to open her locker, she felt a pair of eyes on her. The girl looked up from her locker and turned her head, glimpsing what was next to her.

Louise had her eyes practically glued to the girl. She observed her various tattoos, one being a familiar one eyed snake. _One-Eyed Snakes, huh? _ When she looked back at the girls's face, it was staring right at her. Louise jumped back a bit, startled.

"Nice hat," the girl grinned; her lip ring rose along with the corners of her mouth.

"Yeah, yeah, I get enough crap about it. I don't need you, too," Louise snarled.

The girl looked back to locker, "Alright, whatever, Bunnyhead."

Louise's ears (both hers and the hat's) perked up, her eyes lowering into a glare. "Did you just…give me a nickname?" She turned to the girl, angry that she even had the nerve to.

"Yeah, I guess I did." The girl looked at Louise, smirking, her eyeshadow covered eyes trailing down to Louise's chest, which was only covered by a bra. The moment she realized what the girl was doing, Louise felt her face heat up, quickly covering herself.

The girl smiled a little before slipping off her shirt. Louise found it hard not to stare. As soon as the redhead got her gym shirt on, shut her locker, and walked away, Louise turned to Courtney.

"W..Who the fuck was that?!" she practically yelled at Courtney. Courtney was still in the same stance she had been the moment the newcomer entered the room. "I…don't know, Louise…but that was fucking weird."

Louise looked back at the door in awe, expecting the girl to come back.

She didn't.

* * *

The entire class period, that punk rocker chick was on Louise's mind. _Who was she? More importantly, why did she stare at my tits?_ Louise kept an eye out for any traces of the girl, hoping maybe the gym class she had been enrolled in would cross paths with Louise's.

Courtney noticed the anxiousness of Louise from far away on the inside track, starting to worry. "Hey, Lou, you ok?" Louise jumped at the sound of Courtney's voice, startled. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine…shut up." Her friend sighed, giving up and walking back to her gym class, across the room.

Chewing on her pencil, the girl in the bunny hat sat in her somewhat empty classroom, waiting for class to start. The other students let out murmurs of _"Can I copy yours?"_ and _"Did you do the homework?"_ but the only thing on Louise's mind was that damn girl.

By the time class started, Louise was already bored to tears. She pulled out her notebook and started to jot down notes she had about the redhead, to narrow her down enough to have an opinion of her:

Ginger (probably in league with the devil) (but is she a natural redhead?)

Isn't a Hot Topic cookie cutter like the other so called "punks"

One-Eyed Snakes tatt, prob a member? Or just a wannabe member

Rad, spiky hair that could slice open a human being

Gave me a stupid nickname (like I haven't heard rabbit names before)

In a weird sort of way, kinda cu

The sound of the door being flung open brought Louise back to reality. Stepping in, the familiar sound of chains entered the room before revealing to be none other than the girl that was on Louise's mind all day. Louise felt her face flush a little as soon as the girl noticed her and grinned like the devil.

"Alexis, come on in! Okay, everybody, this is Alexis…?" Mr. Buntley looked over at Alexis.

"Damara," she replied in annoyance. This obviously wasn't the first time her last name had been difficult for some people.

"Damara! Alexis Damara!" The teacher scanned the room for a seat for his newest pupil. "Well, uh…as you can see, a lot of people don't seem to be here today, so take whatever desk you want and we'll continue on with the lesson."

Alexis headed straight for the empty desk behind Louise, who immediately expressed her discomfort with the new seating arraignment. _Oh shit, I knew that was gonna happen…_


	3. Chapter 3

The punk rocker put her stuff down on the floor, then leaned forward, whispering into Louise's hat covered ear. "Hey, cutie. Where have you been?"

Louise turned bright red, and a few of the students around her took notice of this. Louise quietly groaned in aggravation, ignoring the girl. Alexis waited a few minutes before trying again. "Bunnyhead, I was talking to you," she whispered into her ear once more.

Louise turned around angrily, snapping at her, "Louise! My friggin' name is Louise! Happy now?"

When she turned back around, Mr. Buntley was towering over Louise. "Louise. Alexis. Hallway. Wait for me to come get you."

Louise rolled her eyes, getting up and walking out to the hallway. She leaned against the wall, sighing and sliding down onto the floor. Alexis soon came out after, sitting next to Louise and grinning like a hyena again. "You never told me your last name, Little Lulu."

Ignoring Alexis's nickname, Louise mumbled, "Belcher."

The redhead started giggling, "That's a pretty weird last name, Lulu."

Louise smirked, feeling a sort of attachment to her already this early in the game. "Yeah, well, it's not the worst. At least it isn't Butt. My sister would have a field day with that one."

Alexis started giggling again, "Your sister has a thing for butts? How old is she?"

"She's in college. I don't know, she's weird. You have no idea what it was like having to live with her," Louise smiled a bit.

"Well, no, but I can imagine," Alexis burst into giggles once more. "Did she look at your butt, or everybody's?"

"1. She looked at everybody's, but she has her favorites. 2. Why do you suddenly care so much about my ass?" the girl with the bunny hat questioned the redhead. Alexis blushed.

"You brought it up, babe," she smiled, looking at Louise with bedroom eyes, then continuing, "So why do you wear that hat? Do you ever take it off?" Louise backed up a bit.

"None of your damn business." She simply refused to talk more about it. Alexis put her left hand on Louise's arm, using the right to lift up her chin. "Feisty. I like that in a woman," she whispered.

Louise blushed but kept her angry demeanor. "Are you hitting on me?"

Alexis grinned, "I'm a dyke, Louise. I thought it was pretty obvious by now. Didn't you see my tattoos?" The redhead started to pull off her shirt. Louise frantically looked away. "No! No, I don't- Damnit Alexis, I don't wanna see that! I get it! You're a lesbian…"

She pulled her top back down, giggling. "What about you?"

Louise said nothing, looking down at the floor, only just now noticing the tattoo of two Venus symbols interlocking one another on the other girl's arm. _…Oh._

"Let me guess, you're still in the closet? Well, maybe I can help with that…" And with that, Alexis leaned forward slowly, closing her eyes and-

"Belcher, Damara. Get back in here."

Louise hadn't even heard the classroom door being flung open. All she had heard was the sound of her heartbeat going a thousand miles per hour, her nostrils inhaling the oddly comforting cigarette smell coming off of Alexis. Mr. Buntley stood there in the doorway, blushing lightly, knowing he had interrupted a special moment between the two. He professionally kept his calm stance, just barely.

Alexis stopped and gently let go of Louise's chin, getting up. "Alright, sir. I'm sorry I caused all this…!" Before she finished her sentence, she bolted off down the hallway, calling after Louise, "Hold onto my shit for me, Lulu! Put your number in my phone in there! Later!"

Louise stood there, still registering what happened. She had pulled this escape plan a million times before in middle school, but she stopped in high school when she realized there was an influx of security guards prowling the school's every corner. _How the fuck is she gonna make it outta here?_

Mr. Buntley, on the other hand, was already racing to try to catch the rebellious redhead, his fat little body comically bouncing as he ran. Louise looked back into the classroom at the students staring at the door, wondering what happened. "Go! Go! Go!" she shouted, knowing how much the others needed to get out of that hell hole of a classroom. The remaining students quickly grabbed their things before running past Louise. Louise spotted Alexis's bag being carried out by a boy, but she grabbed his arm and rose her arm, her hand balling into a fist. The boy laughed nervously and dropped the bag, running off when she let him go.

Picking up the bag, Louise waltzed back into the now deserted room to get her things. A loud vibrating noise was coming from her own backpack. Louise pulled out her phone:

**1 New Message**

**Logan**

Louise sighed and opened it.

**I'm sorry.**

Louise hastily closed her phone in annoyance, putting it back in her pocket. "I don't need you anymore, Logan, just…step off," she mumbled to herself before leaving the classroom.


	4. Chapter 4

**Louise, please talk to me. I miss you…**

Logan glumly pressed the button on his phone the second time that day while walking up the stairs to his apartment, the text sending. He sincerely missed his only friend- well, his only school friend who he may or may not have had feelings for the past 5 years. He eventually got over the "it's wrong" notion that repeatedly flooded his mind due to the age issues. Luckily, Logan, unlike his other friends he had in high school, knew if he even tried anything silly, her father, now his boss, would have killed him before the police got to him first. The most affectionate thing the two friends had ever done was a hug or the occasional friendly cuddle.

After his friends graduated, the only one that would give Logan the time of day was Louise. Louise and stupid yet adorable bunny hat. The blonde managed to convince himself that loving her was wrong because she was younger, and that she'd flip out if she found out, anyway.

_Ugh, I hate to say this, but she __is__ legal now…not like I even like her that way anymore._

Logan growled and shook the thought away. Trudging up the stairs, he was greeted by Louise's brother, Gene. The two shared an apartment together, ever since Gene graduated from high school. They surprisingly got along well, hanging out after Logan's initial friends graduated and left him behind. Sharing similar classes and hanging out during lunch with Louise, the two eventually made a pact to share an apartment together. It wasn't that hard to find an apartment just outside of town but still close to home. Well, Gene's home, anyway. Logan's parents lived on the other side of town.

"Hey, Logan. I was gonna run out to get some bird seed."

"Bird seed? We don't even have birds," replied Logan.

"Yeah, I know, but I hear if you put them in those cool looking shaker things they make a good beat," Gene said, smiling as usual. Sometimes Logan wondered how Gene could be so damn happy all the time.

"You mean maracas?"

"Yeah, those! How did you know?" asked Gene, astonished.

Logan stared blankly at his roommate. "Those are, like, the first things you learn in grade school. Instruments, I mean."

Gene rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, well, uh…Wagstaff had to cut some parts of the music curriculum to make room for Richard Simmons."

"…What the hell are you talking about?"

"I'll tell you later! I gotta go get that bird food!" And with that, Gene rushed down the small set of stairs.

* * *

Once inside and properly fed, Logan checked his phone. Still nothing. "God dammit, Louise."

The blonde haired man sighed and got up, looking at the clock. Where the hell was Gene getting that bird feed from? Plopping himself in front of the TV, his eye caught a glimpse of the yearbook on the coffee table, opened up to the page of faculty and staff members. On one portrait was a big red circle around it, revealing to be, in fact, Richard Simmons. 'I told you bro' was written next to it, then a crude drawing of one of those characters from that stupid web comic Gene loved. Something about stairs? Who the hell knew.

After about 20 minutes, Gene came back with a huge bag of bird food.

"Honey, I'm home and slightly hungover!" Gene said while proudly holding the 30 pound bag of bird food.

Logan turned his head. "Seriously?"

"Nah. But hey, I swung by my dad's joint and-"

"I should have known that's why you took so long…" Logan cut in.

Gene set the food down on the floor. "Anyway, I was there and I saw Louise with Courtney." Logan turned back to the TV. "Oh," he said, uninterested. Gene jumped onto the couch, causing Logan to be bounced roughly. "No, the thing is…they were talking about some creepy chick that just transferred in, I guess? And I overheard Louise saying the girl tried to kiss her or some bullshit like that. Just thought _you_ of all people should know."

Logan turned to him. "She tried to wha- wait, why the hell do you think I should know? She friggin hates me right now because of Sunday. Besides, why would I care who Louise swaps spit with?"

"Logan, look…honey. It's obvious. You can stop hiding your need for wanting to fuck my sister," Gene stared right at him, not impressed by Logan's attempt to cover it up.

Logan picked up a pillow, throwing it in Gene's face. "Dude, that was, like, two years ago. Besides, even if she is 18 now, she only sees me as a brother. Probably the sane brother she never had."

Gene sighed. "You don't have a problem with her being with girls, do you? I mean, I'm surprised enough that you can handle me." Logan's mind flashed back to all the drunken nights of Gene bringing home guys, sloppily making out with them on the couch, attempting to have sex on the living room floor, then pass out.

"Dude, if I had a problem with gay people, I wouldn't have roomed with you. Although my mom still thinks you're straight. You should probably…not say anything. She gets **really angry **at two guys hugging each other," Logan said, wincing a bit at the end.

"Yeah, well, your mom's a bitch."

"She really is."

"Besides, I haven't been to that bar in, like, a week. Oh, hey, does Courtney still go to Huxley, or did she graduate already?" Gene brought his knees up to his chest.

"Why? You wanna get together? She's _still_ crazy about you. I don't know how Louise stomachs her. She dresses like an emo kid but is still annoying as she was when she dated you," Logan flipped through channels.

"Oh, good god, no! You're joking right? I'm pretty sure I've known I like dick since maybe the 3rd grade. Well, okay I didn't actually like dicks in 3rd grade I just knew I liked boys. Then I liked dicks in-"

"Hey, Gene…I gotta ask you something. About Louise," Logan turned to the fabulous homosexual.

"Yeah? Shoot."

"Well…"


	5. Chapter 5

"What can I do to make her love me again? As a friend, I mean…"

Gene scoffed. "Okay, you can stop with the 'just friends' crap. You're not fooling anybody," he snickered. "Honestly…it's really fucking difficult to gain Louise's trust back after something like this. I think the only reason she still trusts me and Tina is because she had to put up with us her whole life. I actually…don't know how you'd do that. I've never witnessed it first-hand."

Logan groaned; this was going to be no easy task. Gene looked at his phone. "Hey, do you remember Dylan?"

"You mean that biker dude you brought home once? Yeah, what about him?"

"He wants me back. And I'm like, HAHA no sweetie. I'd rather be in the pussy game,"Gene laughed. The blonde roommate rolled his eyes. "Why is it my own roommate can get more guys than I can get a single girl?" Gene leaned forward and pinched Logan's cheek. "Don't worry, buddy, I'm sure a tranny is on their way for you." Logan smacked his hand away, annoyed.

"So does this mean Louise is a lesbian now?" Logan asked aloud. Gene pondered this for a moment before speaking up. "No, I'm pretty sure I've caught her looking at guy porn."

Logan stared. "How do you know that?"

"Because then I opened the door and looked at it with her. That was one of our best memories together," Gene sighed happily. Logan started laughing, then pulled out his phone just to see if maybe Louise had texted him back. No luck.

Gene peered over Logan's shoulder. "Dude, what did you tell her?" Logan shut his phone, mumbling, "That I missed her…why?" Gene shook his head no. "That's not going to bring her back. That just makes you sound clingy." "Well, then how would _you _handle this?" Logan asked in aggravation. The chocolate haired boy snatched Logan's phone, opening it up. "Let me show you." He started typing out something, and within seconds, "Annnnd 'Send'." Logan grabbed the phone, "What did you say?" He looked at the sent box.

**I want genes dick oh yea**

"What the fuck, Gene?!" Logan hit the laughing man upside the head. "I'm sorry, I just had to. You're so desperate, Logan," Gene almost fell over in laughter. Logan was just about to hit him when his phone went off, indicating a new message. He quickly opened it. "See? I told you, you're desperate. It's sorta sad," Gene said, trying to stop his laughter.

**Louise: Tell Gene to grow up.**

**Logan: Oh so NOW you talk to me?**

**Louise: Shut up, that's not important. I have a secret.**

**Logan: And?**

**Louise: I think I'm bisexual.**

**Logan: I've heard.**

**Louise: What? WHO TOLD YOU?!**

**Logan: Gene. Well, he heard you talking about some girl, he didn't really say that you're bi.**

A few minutes passed, before Gene's phone went off. "…Fuck you, you shouldn't be listening to my conversations," he read aloud. "Well, then," Gene started to type, "Then maybe you should have talked about it somewhere that wasn't a public place. Send." Logan rolled his eyes. "You're a drama queen."

"Hey! I worked hard for the money! While you sat on your ass, I was cleaning, cooking, and taking care of the kids! GIVE ME A BREAK, LOGAN! GIVE ME A BREAK!"

"…What?"

Gene got up and shrugged, walking away into his room. Logan started texting something before hearing Gene coming back. "Hey, Logan, do you want to practice kissi-"

Logan glared at him. "No. I'm straight, Gene."

"Well we could PRETEND I'm Louise! I'm related! I can be Lou-" Gene was cut off by an incoming pillow hitting him in the face. "Fine, fine," Gene mumbled, going back to his room.

Logan started texting Louise once more.

**Logan: Sorry about Gene. I should probably try to control him better. He is my roommate anyway…**

**Louise: You think? Whatever, don't you have work now?**

_Oh shit._

Logan looked at the time and rushed to get his jacket on, flying out of the door. "Bye Gene, Work, home later!" Gene, not surprisingly, didn't hear him over the sound of his voice singing along to music he was blasting from his room.

"_'Cause I'mma Primadonna girl, all I ever wanted was the world…_"

* * *

"Oh, yeah! I saw this video of a kid online who could light a light bulb by sticking it in his mouth.. I mean, like, what's going on there, right? Do you think he's-"

Linda's voice was interrupted by the sound of the restaurant door being open, Logan rushing through it. He gave her a quick, "Hi Linda," while running to the kitchen. Linda watched him go; it was her cue to get back to reality. "I'll talk to you later, Ginger. Good luck with your hemorrhoids," Linda said before hanging up the phone. She turned around to face the window between the kitchen and the rest of the restaurant, her ponytail swinging in the air. "Logan, you're late!" Logan hurriedly took off his jacket. "I know, Mrs. B, but-" "Ugh, you're lucky Bobby's not here right now, or he'd have your ass on the burner instead!" The blonde looked at the clock, it said 4:30. He gagged before doing the typical routine.

After a while, Logan poked his head through the window. "Hey, Linda, where does Bob keep the meat again?" The mother turned around with her hands on her hips. The woman had aged reasonably well in the last couple years, looking exactly the same as when he was in high school. The only difference was she had her hair tied back. Hugo finally crawled through Bob's skin enough to make him force the staff to wear hairnets. Of course, Bob wasn't going to do that, so he just told Linda to pull her hair into a ponytail.

"Logan, you've been here two years and you already forgot?" Linda sighed, placing her arm on the blue windowsill of the kitchen, one hand on her hip, as she leaned against it. Logan smiled sheepishly, blushing lightly in embarrassment. "It's been a rough week for me, I'm sorry…" Linda looked at the blonde, laughing a bit. "You think I didn't notice? Sunday wasn't the first time I've had women's panties thrown in my face, you know. Speaking of Sunday, is Louise still mad? You know, I never objected to you two being together. My husband, on the other hand…" Logan looked away, leaving to get the meat. Linda called after him, "Get back here!"

The front door swung open, with Tina coming inside with Louise and Alexis trailing behind. Linda turned around, smiling at first then screamed when she laid her eyes on Alexis. "Louise! Oh..! Oh my God. I thought you were David Bowie, I'm so sorry." Louise groaned. "Mom..!"

Linda laughed nervously. "So, uh, Louise, who's your new friend?"

Louise looked at Alexis, who was grinning evilly and took Louise's hand in her own.

"Mom, this is Alexis. She's…she's my girlfriend."

Logan dropped everything he was holding, meat patties falling onto the floor.


	6. Chapter 6

Linda froze, looking back at her daughter.

"…You're gay? I mean, I don't mind it. Just look at Gene!" she started to chuckle.

"No, Mom. Bi," Louise corrected her. Alexis leaned down and kissed the girl in the hat on the cheek. Louise smiled in response.

"So that just means you're half-gay, then?" Linda asked, confused.

Tina spoke up, "Actually, I think I mi-"

"Sure, Mom," Louise rolled her eyes, then spotted Logan in the kitchen from where she was standing. At first glimpse, he looked fine, but a closer look showed the blonde angrily fighting tears. Alexis turned to Louise to sneak another kiss, then noticed her girlfriend looking at Logan. Alex's eyes lit up in flames. Louise frowned and started to say something to him, but Alexis yanked Louise away. "Well, we really need to get going, bye!" she said, dragging Louise out the door.

Tina stood there for a moment, like she wanted to say something. Linda was confused as all holy hell. "What's that girl's problem? I don't like the looks of her, but I guess I can't choose who my baby dates," Linda said in a worried tone, then looked over at Tina, "Right, Tina?"

"Mom, I think I'm bisexual, too."

Linda stared at her eldest child, then left her post from the counter, starting to look out the window. Tina questioned this. "Mom, what are you doing? Is Tom Selleck out there?"

"Is it just me, or did the gay parade just come to town?"

* * *

Louise almost tripped, behind rushed down the street. "Alexis, what the hell was that about? Slow the fuck down!" Alexis growled, "Let's just say, it's something between me and him. C'mon, we're going to my apartment."

Slowly making their way up the steps, Louise wondered what the fuck was going on. She hadn't known Alexis had an apartment, or lived on her own, for that matter. Staring at all the different tattoos on the redhead's arm, Louise started to wonder if this was even safe. But Alexis hadn't shown any signs of being dangerous. _Even if she is, I know I could handle her._

Alexis invited Louise inside. The apartment was a mess, with various things scattered around. "Want a drink?" Louise nodded, and within moments Alexis had handed her a cup. The girl drunk it down.

Louise was pretty sure she saw a bong. "Um, babe, I don't do that…the most I do is drink, I mean I tried smoking but it wasn't really my thing…" she said, noticing several jars of dead animals adorning the place.

The angry redhead lit a cigarette, mumbling, "Don't worry, it's not for you." Louise rubbed one of her arms, a bit chilly. "Do you have a bathroom?" Alexis pointed in the right direction. "Thanks…" said Louise quietly, slipping into the bathroom.

Pulling out her phone, Louise frantically started typing.

**Louise: Logan, I'm at Alexis's house and this place is kind of sketchy…**

**Logan: Then get out? I don't know. I'm a little out of it.**

Louise briefly considered asking why, but decided against it.

**Louise: Dude, she's got like dead animals in jars. The fuck.**

**Logan: I've heard that's a hobby.**

**Louise: For psychos! I can't leave without going down the stairs, I'm on the third story floor…**

**Logan: Fuck. I don't know what to say.**

Louise never got a chance to reply, as her tattooed girlfriend flung open the door. "Hey, get out here, will ya?" In a state of slight panic, Louise nodded and put her phone away.

"Uh, look, Alexis, I really should go-"

Alexis locked the door, then pulled her girlfriend into a long kiss, one of enough passion to make any girl squeal. Shocked, as this was her first kiss, Louise froze up before kissing back sloppily. The two fell onto the couch, Alexis on top. She leaned in and whispered in Louise's ear, "I know we just met, but will you go to prom with me?" Louise's eyes went wide. She had completely forgotten about prom, which was in a week. She had surprisingly forgotten that her, Courtney, Logan, and Alexis would be graduating soon. Something clicked in her mind.

"Wait, you just got here. They'll let you graduate?"

Alexis grinned, "I have my ways. Now, answer my question…please?"

Louise looked away then back to her lover. "No."

Alexis's smile completely vanished, before she got up and dragged Louise roughly along with her. "What did you say?" Louise almost fell over again, then angrily looked up at the redhead, "No. We JUST met. That's stupid. Are you seriously mad about some dumb dance?" Alexis kept her back turned to the chocolate-haired girl. Louise's brow furrowed, while Alexis was racing through her mind how to make this work; this wasn't what she wanted at all!

"Alexis, ans-"

Before she knew it, Louise had been smacked across the face with enough force to be knocked off her feet, slamming onto the floor on her side. The girl with the bunny hat felt her cheek, where she was struck. Still warm. She looked up furiously at the lesbian and started to get up. That is, if she could. Louise felt her head spinning and her limbs weakened significantly. "What the fuck, did you drug-"

After that, Louise had woken up in her bed, sore all over, an aftertaste of chloroform in her mouth. She slowly pulled out her phone, and tried to type.

**He**

At that point, Louise lost the grip on her phone, starting to blacken out once more. The cell phone bounced across the carpet, the text long forgotten and never sent.


	7. Chapter 7

Logan squinted as rays of the sun slit through the blinds, several aiming at his face as he was rudely awakened. The blonde sat up with an irritated frown, rubbing his head. "Fuck, how many did I have last night?" He struggled to remember the night before, the most coming back to him was him collapsing into the apartment, beer bottle in hand. Logan got up and trudged to the kitchen, passing the bathroom that was in between the roommates. Hearing groaning coming from the bathroom, Logan stopped and turned around, sticking his head in the bathroom door.

"Hey Ge-…Are…are you talking to that toilet?"

Gene looked up from his spot right in front of the toilet, drooling a bit, a few beer cans scattered around him. "Oh heyyyyy, Loagie! Me and the toilet here were just telling each other secrets…" The man was obviously still slightly intoxicated. Logan watched as Gene turned to the toilet, whispering, "H-Hey, toilet, here's a good one," the man's voice lowered even more before he stifled a laugh, "my first anal beads…it had one of Marilyn's eyes on it…"

"Okay, well, um, I gotta…go. Bye." Logan darted out of the premises before he almost puked, going to the kitchen. A little while later after the man had cracked open a can of beer and grabbed a piece of toast, Gene stumbled out into the living room, yawning. "Done talking to your wife?" Logan said as he turned to look at Gene.

"He's my best friend! YOU WOULDN'T UNDERSTAND, LOGAN! Maaan…I can't believe I still remember last night," the chocolate haired man mumbled. Logan quickly asked, "Wait, you do? What happened?"

Sighing, Gene walked next to Logan and sat on the couch next to him. "You came in here pretty bummed, almost ready to pass out. I think you stopped at the drugstore or something. Anyway, you almost fell on your face and had red, puffy eyes, like you had been crying, I guess?"

Logan's mind flickered back to yesterday evening, the fiasco with Louise and Alexis now dating came back to him. His heart sunk. "God dammit, I wish you never told me. I sort of wanted to forget about that."

"About what?"

Logan stopped mid swig. "Oh, uh…well…didn't Tina call you or something?"

Gene pulled out his phone. "75 Missed Calls…74 from Mom, and 1 from Tina. Oh, and.." he trailed off, his attention on something else on his phone. Logan pulled out his phone as well, hoping that maybe last night was just a horrible, horrible dream, and Louise was still texting him. No new messages. Gene looked at Logan. "Is the thing my mom tried calling me about have to do with you?" The blonde looked down, tossing his now empty beer can to the side. "More than likely, yeah."

The larger man closed his phone. "Well, tell me what happened!" He turned to the blonde, noticing how depressed he had become in such little time. Placing an arm around Logan, Gene whispered, "Hey, what's wrong, babe?" Balling up his fists, Logan intensely stared at a random spot on the carpet before slowly explaining the events of the previous night.

"I went to work and eventually Tina shows up with Louise and Alexis. All of a sudden, Louise tells your mom that she's dating Alexis. Then Louise started looking at me, and so did Alexis. Alex got really pissed for some reason, I'm guessing jealousy? So she, like, dragged Louise to her third floor apartment and Louise texted me later while I was on my break, trying not to cry like a pussy. She sounded like she was freaking out by the way she wrote out her replies. Something about dead animals in jars and how sketchy the whole place seemed. I replied to her saying that I wish I knew what to do, and then she never responded…I just…what if she's not okay?"

Gene sat a few moments, still registering what was just told to him.

"Um…wow," he mumbled, "Yeah, I probably would get wasted if that happened to me. Well, if they were all genderbent, anyway," he laughed lightly, trying to cheer up his friend.  
But it didn't work. Logan didn't even crack a smile.

"Hey, why don't we go stop by the restaurant and see if she's home. That sound good, buddy?" Gene rubbed Logan's back, smiling sadly. He had never seen Logan this upset before. The blonde nodded slowly, still trying not to tear up. Gene smiled before pulling Logan into a hug and kissing the top of his head. "Let me get my coat," He said, getting up.

A small tin of concealer fell off of Louise's dresser; a bare foot with a swollen ankle just barely moved away in time so as to not be hit. "Fuck," muttered Louise softly, picking it up.

Louise hadn't looked so bad last night. She had felt like shit, sure, but now? Two black eyes, various cuts and bruises, scrapes galore, the whole package. Looking into the mirror, the bruised young woman sighed. _I'm gonna need to buy a LOT more makeup…I bet Tina has some_. Slipping out of her room, the bunny ears on her hat twitched as Louise slinked down the hall. Stepping into Tina's room, the coast was clear. _Oh thank God. This hat can't cover up my face…_ Quickly grabbing various makeup knickknacks, Louise was too busy to notice anything else. The lights turned off when she had gotten there, Louise kept rummaging through Tina's dresser top, not catching the silhouette casting in the doorway.

"Louise? What are you doing in my room?"

Tina stood behind Louise, slightly confused. Her younger sister froze up, her face like a deer in the headlights. Refusing to turn around in fear of her sister figuring out what was going on, Louise replied from her spot facing the dresser. "Uh, I was just getting some things…for my project. I need to do a report on horses, and what better place to go than your room, right? Haha…" Shutting the door behind her silently, Tina looked the back of her sister from head to toe, concerned. "Louise, I'm kinda worried about you…you got home really late last night…I mean, I know the high school had an institute day today, but…you never get home late. Not on purpose, anyway."

Louise looked down at the make up in her hands, clutching it close to her chest. "Just mind your own business, Tina," she mumbled, "I'm fine…I'm just here for your dumb horses, okay?" Louise started to back up, only to bump into her bespectacled sister. Louise kept her back to her. Tina looked down at the undersides of Louise's arms, plastered in red marks and bruises. Biting her lip, she placed a quivering hand on Louise's shoulder. "Louise, what exactly happened at Alexis's apartment last night?"

Turning around without thinking, Louise snapped at her sister, "**Nothing happened, okay, Tina?!**" Shoving past Tina, who had a shocked face, she bolted for the door. Twisting on the handle, Louise expected to be out in the hallway by now. The door went nowhere. _Fuck. Locked._

"…Louise, I'm not an idiot."

Growling, Louise refused to face her sister once more. "I-It's just make up!" Tina gently grabbed a part of Louise's arm that wasn't bruised and turned her around. Looking away, Louise tried to cover her face with one arm, causing some of the makeup to fall to the floor. It was too late. Tina took a deep breath, examining Louise's face from afar. "I got beat up once or twice before. I know what's makeup and what's not. You're trying to fool a woman who seen thousands of zombie movies."

"You got beat up?" Louise looked at her sister, a bit shocked. "I don't remember that at all."

"It was once in freshman year of high school. It was no big deal, honestly," Tina said while sitting down, turning her sister around and checking for all the scrapes. "Uh, I'm gonna need you to take your shirt off." She got up from her place on the bed, quietly unlocking and opening the door, escaping to the bathroom for the first aid kit.

Sighing in annoyance, Louise slipped off her green shirt, noticing a few tiny blood stains in various places of the shirt. "Damn…she got me good." Tina walked back in with not a first aid kit, but ointment, bandages, and wet wipes. "Let me guess, Alexis did this." Louise looked at the floor, remembering who was responsible for all of this. "Yeah…"

Starting to attend to Louise's wounds, Tina mumbled, "How did it happen?" Louise shook her head as if she didn't want to talk about it. "She asked me to prom and I said no. I have no idea why she went apeshit, but I think it has to do with Logan for some reason. Anyway, she drugged me, slapped me, then held me down and covered my face with a rag covered in chloroform that just HAPPENED to be lying around…it was almost like it was all planned."

Tina nodded, not sure what to say. The sisters remained silent while the elder was tending to the younger. After a while, Tina got up and did one last spin around of Louise before content that she had done all that she could do. "Okay, I guess you wanna borrow some of my makeup, right? Let me get the better ones." Walking back to her dresser, Tina rummaged around in the clutter. Louise watched Tina from where she was standing.

"Tina…please don't tell Mom or Dad about this…or Gene or Logan. I can fix this on my own, I promise…"

Turning around, Tina looked troubled. "I don't know, Louise, I know you like to do things your way but I'm really worried about this…I really think you should tell someone…please?" Frowning, Louise looked back at her sister, obviously not pleased.

"I'll be fine, Tina. Thanks for helping me out," Louise said, taking the makeup from Tina and hugging her with one arm before leaving the room. Tina stayed behind with a worried expression on her face.

Once back in her room, Louise placed the makeup on her own dresser. Applying the makeup, Louise checked her phone for any texts.

**2 New Messages**

Opening the first, Louise was greeted by a text from Gene.

**Gene: Hey, just thought I'd give you a heads up: Logan's really worried about you so we're stopping by in a bit.**

_Ugh, okay_, she thought in annoyance. She opened the next one.

**Alexis: Hey baby I bet ur probbly pissed, well dont worry it wont happen again…as long as u dont piss me off!. if i were u, id keep followin my orders…otherwise some1 close 2 u will get hurt ;) luv u**

Louise scoffed. _This bitch must be dreaming if she thinks she'll control me._ Pulling up a new message, Louise started to make a smart ass reply before pausing. _Wait, someone close to me will get hurt? But who..?_ Images of her parents and siblings ran through her head, which bothered her, before she remembered Logan. _God dammit, she hates him for some reason. I doubt she could overpower Logan, though. Although…_ Louise glanced at her now healing cuts. She might wear a hat that seemed childish, but Louise was pretty tough when it came to fighting. Most people in her classes tried to avoid her. It was pretty damn surprising Alexis was able to bring down such a small but so strong powerhouse in so little time.

Sighing, Louise erased what she had been writing. _I have no choice, then…_

**Louise: Ok.**

Pressing the send button, Louise tossed her phone onto the floor before getting ready for Gene and Logan's not so surprise visit.


	8. Chapter 8

_sorry it took so long this week sucked ASS i think i spent like 4 days writing this jfc_

"Hey, Logan, you remember that we have that gig tonight right?" Gene asked, his eyes on the sidewalk in front of them. Neither of the boys were sober enough to drive, but sober enough to make it downtown by foot. "Crap, you're right…" the blonde replied in annoyance. Logan was never interested in the music career path, it was just a hobby for him. All he knew how to do was sing and play guitar. Gene, on the other hand, was a different story. He knew from the day he first got his keyboard he'd be set on the music path for life. From Louise's fourth grade science project to student films, the dark haired college student had tremendous experience in composing music. While he mostly had experience with general, happy go lucky music that one would hear in a cheesy romance comedy, Gene's true passion laid in house music. At first, the whole family thought he was just joking as usual, but eventually they caught on that it wasn't an act. He found inspiration through a wide variety of music, but the musician that mainly caught his eye was a Welsh singer with a fascination with breaking hearts and robots. Gene made it a point to use makeup to apply a small black heart near his left eye every gig they had.

"You gonna be okay to perform? I mean I can sing, but…not very good," Gene laughed quietly. Rubbing his head and nodding, Logan looked up at the sky. "Yeah, I'll be fine. We're gonna do the song I kept bugging you about, right?" The chocolate haired boy snickered, "Well, we're gonna have to otherwise you'd probably kill me, so yeah." He pushed open the door to the small restaurant, the chatter of Linda and Mort the only sounds present besides the sizzling of the grill. Looking up from the grill, Bob smiled at the sight of his son. The man hadn't changed a bit as far as appearance goes: he still sported his signature nose cozy and somewhat combed hair, hair trying to cover up the bald spot still intact.

Gene smiled back. "Hey, Dad. How's it going?" Flipping a single burger for Mort, Bob managed to tear his attention from the grill for a moment. "Good, how about you, Gene? Still, uh…with Dylan?" he said a bit uneasy. It was still sort of a struggle for Bob to grasp his son's homosexuality. He had absolutely no problem with it, nor did any other members of the family, but Bob was not prepared for something like that. They never taught you how to deal with a gay son or daughter in all those stupid parent seminars Linda dragged him to while she was pregnant with Gene. Linda had noticed how shy Tina had been as a toddler at that time, and Linda was worried it might have had to do with how she raised her daughter, hence the grueling hours of various seminars.

The somewhat short gay man scoffed while leaning over the counter, "Hell no, I been done wit dat asshole." Bob laughed quietly; it wasn't unusual for Gene to let out his inner ghetto, but it sure was something that the father found humorous. Logan sat down next to Mort, not saying much of anything. The glasses-donning mortician turned to the blonde, "Hey, Logan, you don't look so good. What's on your mind?" Logan sighed before answering that his problem was girls. "Ah, girls, the age old mystery. If you find anything out, let me know, okay? I've been stooping to such a personal low, going as far as hitting on funeral guests. And let me tell you, most of them are not under 75," Mort shuddered. Linda cut in, "Mort, why are you here so late in the day, anyway? You're usually here for the lunch lull. Teddy was going nuts tryin' to find you in here. He thought we were playin' a game or somethin'."

Mort chuckled a bit, "No, I was next door the whole time, obviously. There was a wake for a set of triplet sisters who were a famous circus act around here in the 60's. It lasted three hours since there were so many people, oh my God it was insane." Linda poured herself a cup of coffee. "Circus act? What kind of stuff did they do?" Bob set Mort's plate on the windowpane of the pass through. "Let me see…uh, I think they were acrobats that ate fire? Something like that. I heard that one of the sisters would upchuck the burning stick into another sister's mouth." Linda took the plate and set it down in front of Mort. "Ooh, I hope they didn't have too many spicy foods." "I think they were Hispanic, actually," he said before taking a bite of his burger. "Oh. Well, I'm sure their hospital bills were less than stellar."

Tuning them out, Logan got up and slipped into the kitchen. "Logan, you're not on the grill today. Actually, you don't even have work today," Bob said while taking the last of the fries out of the fryer. "I'm not here for work, Mr. B," Logan looked down at the floor. Pulling a plate out, Bob emptied the fryer basket full of a handful of fries then set it down on the cutting board. Putting some salt on them, Bob continued, "Then why did you come back here?" Logan looked back at his boss sheepishly, "Uh, it's about Louise…"

Bob started to snack on the fries. "Yeah, what about her? Did she kick you in the balls again or something?" Logan laughed a bit before shaking his head no. "No, actually, it's about, um…Louise and Alexis," he said, a bit worriedly. Bob's head perked up at the sound of Alexis; it wasn't something he knew enough about to judge just quite yet. "Oh, her," he said in between fries, "Yeah, she's sorta…I'm not too happy about her dating Louise, but there's not much I can do about it, I guess." Rubbing the back of his neck, Logan sighed. "I was texting Louise last night and she was at Alexis's apartment and she was talking about the place seeming sketchy, and the way she was talking made it sound like she was freaking out. I tried to calm her down, but she never responded. Did she get home last night?"

"Yeah, she did, but it was pretty late...and Alexis was carrying her," Bob looked at the plate of fries, "I didn't get a good look at Louise, but she was asleep. I'm sure it's nothing." Logan nodded. "Alright, Mr. B. I hope you're right," he said, not convinced at all.

As if called on from heaven, Louise walked into the restaurant, Tina trailing behind. Instead of Louise's usually green or aqua colored shirts, she was wearing a large, baggy hoodie. It sort of made her appear smaller and somehow it depressed Logan. Her bunny hat still in place, Louise walked up to the counter. "Hey, Mom," she said, "are the Wonder Twins here?" Linda started to speak up before a loud, muffled voice coming from the bathroom across the room. "I LOOK NOTHING LIKE LOGAN!" Louise stared at the bathroom door, "Well, that answers my question." She turned to her mom as Logan stepped out of the kitchen. "Hey, Louise," Logan said quietly. Getting the hint, Linda turned away from the counter and went into the kitchen. "Oh…hey…" Louise mumbled. She knew she would have had to talk to Logan eventually, but she wasn't exactly ready to. She wanted to tell him about the abuse, but decided against it. Louise could manage this on her own_. Besides, in some, sick twisted way, I still kind of like her a lot…_

Gripping the sides of her head in shock of her thoughts, Louise stepped backward and almost tripped, if not for Tina there to catch her. Tina looked down at her sister, still concerned. "What was that?" she asked Louise. "N…Nothing. I had a weird, um…flashback," she lied. As gulliable as ever, Tina fell for the tiny white lie. Before Logan had a chance to ask if Louise was alright, Gene stepped out of the bathroom, looking at his phone. "Hey, Log, it's time to hit the road. You sobered up enough yet?" Blushing, Logan punched him in the arm, hissing, "You didn't have to tell them that!" Rubbing his arm, Gene retorted, "What? It's not like you spent all night cryi-"

Grabbing Gene's wrist, Logan head straight for the exit, "Sorrygottago," being mumbled at the girls. Louise watched the two go, putting her hands in the front pocket of the hoodie, sighing. Tina just stared, confused. "Louise, what was that about?" The youngest shrugged, "Hell if I know. Wanna go to the pub?" Tina jumped a bit in shock, "Louise, you're not old enough to drink." Raising an eyebrow, Louise smirked, "So what? That hasn't stopped me before, you know that. Remember New Year's?" Tina cringed. "I'd rather not. Fine. Do you have one of those fake ID things?" "Of course, I do, never go anywhere without it," Louise beamed.

* * *

_Do you believe in fate?_

_Do you believe in destiny?_

_Would you believe me if I told you, _

_you complete me..?_

_I don't say this lightly…_

**_So don't take this lightly!_**

Throughout the noisy tavern, the female singer's vocals were the loudest. Louise had to look around to find where exactly it was coming from. A short blonde was the source, with the remaining band members consisting of reasonably tall males. Louise froze as she sang, watching the blonde catch her eye and winking in response. Smiling a bit, Louise was yanked back into reality when she felt Tina tug on her arm. Turning to her sister, slightly annoyed to be taken from the performance, Louise sighed, "What is it, Tina?" The older sister kept glancing around before mumbling, "I saw Alexis here." Quickly lifting her head and looking around, Louise didn't see anyone resembling her girlfriend in the slightest. "What the hell are you talking-" Louise glared at Tina who was staring in terror at the figure now behind the feisty girl.

"Tina, what's the matter, you look like you saw a ghost," a familiar voice chimed in, interrupting Louise. A tattooed arm was wrapped around Louise's waist by this point, startling the smaller girl a bit. Tina turned her attention to the floor, muttering, "Hi Alexis." Saying nothing, Louise looked away, crossing her arms and stepping away from the redhead, trying to get the lesbian's arm off, but it was no use. "Babe, talk to me, we're lovers right?" Alexis said, smirking and roughly clutching Louise's chin, forcing her to look in her direction. Scowling and using all her strength not to snap her teeth at the girl, Louise growled, "Hi, Alexis," which was rewarded with a sloppy kiss. Tina stood back a bit, gripping the ends of her blue jacket, too scared that she might get hurt as well.

Before Louise had the chance to try once more to escape Alexis's grip, a noise similar to patting the head of a microphone was heard, alerting her direction to the stage. _This better be goddamn impor-_ The sight of Logan stopped her thoughts completely. She knew he was in a duo with Gene, but she had never actually seen them perform. The lights above the stage shone down on the blonde, giving his hair a prestigious shine. Gene was there too, of course, using the same blue keyboard he had worshipped all his life. There was also an extra guitarist, a friend of Gene's. Clearing his throat, Logan spoke up into the microphone.

"Alright, so, uh, we're gonna do a cover of a song; it's a song that I wanted to do because it reminds me of a special little lady, so here we go," Logan smiled as he spoke into the microphone. Looking down at his guitar, the blonde made sure his guitar was ready before beginning to play.

**_I'm in love with the girl I hate,_**

**_She enjoys pointing out every bad thing about me_**

**_I'm in love with a critic and a skeptic, a traitor,_**

**_I'd trade her in a second_**

As Gene used his keyboard, Louise watched Logan take a quick glance around the crowd surrounding the stage. The sight of pink bunny ears caused Logan's eyes to widen. Lowering his field of vision to the girl in the hat, Logan grinned mischievously the moment they locked eyes.

**_She's a backseat driver, a drama provider_**

**_An instant update of the world_**

**_She's a first class liar, a constant forgetter_**

**_She's attractive but bitter_**

At this point, Logan managed to catch Alexis's eye contact, who was now furious, looking like she was going to murder someone, her hands no longer all over Louise. He smirked.

**_Did you scream enough to make her cry?_**

**_It's a turn around, turn around_**

He turned to Louise.

**_Baby, don't return to me_**

**_If you think that I'm not worth your time_**

Logan looked angrily back at Louise's lover.

**_She's a lady, and ladies_**

**_Shouldn't be messed with_**

**_She's a lady, and ladies_**

**_Shouldn't be messed with_**

He looked ahead of himself, not looking at anyone in particular.

**_Take off your shoes, come in the room_**

He turned to Louise with a face plastered in sadness.

**_And baby, let's try not to argue_**

**_Turn out the lights, turn on the radio_**

**_How can we fight when I'm too busy loving you?_**

**_I'm too busy loving you, I'm too busy loving you…_**

Logan looked at the same people in the same order for the rest of the bridge and chorus.

**_Did you scream enough to make her cry?_**

**_It's a turn around, turn around_**

**_Baby, don't return to me_**

**_If you think that I'm not worth your time_**

**_She's a lady, and ladies_**

**_Shouldn't be messed with_**

**_She's a lady, and ladies_**

**_Shouldn't be messed with_**

As he did a guitar solo, Logan tried to fight back tears. He looked back at the wall across the room.

**_Here I am, there you go again_**

**_Again_**

**_And we will not ever be 18 again_**

**_Again_**

**_And I'm worn out of fighting_**

**_And every night you leave crying_**

**_And I could use some time_**

**_Here I am, there you go_**

**_Again_**

Logan kept trying to fight back tears, but failed. His tears running down his face, Logan kept a straight face and kept singing.

**_So here I am and I'm dying_**

He picked up the microphone from the stand. Tina's eyes widened, catching onto Logan's antics. "He's singing for you," she whispered into Louise's ear, pushing her younger sister forward.

**_And I'm waiting for you, waiting for you_**

"Wait wh-" Louise didn't get to finish because it was at this point that she was directly inches away from the stage, Logan already on the edge of it, squatting and reaching out for her hand.

**_Come back, come back to me_**

Louise placed her hand in Logan's, trying not to cry.

**_And I'll take you gladly_**

The two smiled at each other.

**_And I'll take you in again_**

Alexis yanked Louise away angrily, steam practically coming out of her ears. Logan smirked through his tears, facing Alexis, their faces almost level.

**_Did you scream enough to make her cry?_**

**_It's a turn around, turn around_**

Logan stood up, going back to the microphone stand.

**_Baby, don't return to me_**

**_If you think that I'm not worth your time_**

**_Did you scream enough to make her cry?_**

**_It's a turn around, turn around_**

**_Baby, don't return to me_**

**_If you think that I'm not worth your time_**

**_She's a lady, and ladies_**

**_Shouldn't be messed with_**

**_She's a lady, and ladies_**

**_Shouldn't be messed with_**

There was a brief silence before Logan heard the applause of the audience. Waving a hand to the crowd, he and the others left the stage. Louise watched them go. _No, Logan, come back…_ "Louise, Alexis is gone," Tina spoke up. Louise looked around then bolted to the entrance backstage, getting in after threatening a large buff security guard.

* * *

Setting down his guitar next to Gene, Logan quickly looked around before frantically telling Gene that he had to leave. "What? You're seriously gonna pussy out after you pretty much told the whole tavern you're in love with a girl with bunny ears for a hat?"

"…Yes."

Gene rolled his eyes. "Alright, whatever dude, just go. I'll take this shit back to the car, I guess." Logan punched Gene lightly in the shoulder. "Thanks, man, I owe you," the blonde called out as he went out the backstage door that led to the alleyway. "I WANT A LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP TO THE GAY BAR, THAT'S WHAT YOU OWE ME, AND LOTS OF STRIPPERS WEARING NOTHING BUT A CONDOM AND A HAT," Gene screamed before he felt a small fist hit his arm.

Rubbing his arm in agony, Gene turned only to face his little sister. "Hey, Louise, Logan just left, so…" She stomped her foot. "Goddammit, where'd he go?" An arm grasped Louise's, pulling her back out of the room. "Louise, we gotta go, it's way past twelve and we've both got classes tomorrow," Tina said, confident in her leadership skills for once. Before she could protest, Louise was already out of the tavern and down the street.

* * *

Kicking a lone beer can, Logan looked down at his shoes, thinking of the performance. He grinned.

_She smiled..._

A sudden noise in the alleyway startled Logan and he turned around feverishly. "Is somebody there?" he asked aloud, looking around nervously, a handful or so feet away from the sidewalk. He started to back up, until he bumped into something, causing the sound of chains clicking against each other. He turned around.

"Oh, sor-" Logan started to say, before realizing who it was. The figure tossed a cigarette butt onto the ground before grabbing Logan's arms and slamming him into the brick wall of the tavern, his stomach pressed up against the building.

"Get off of me, bitch!" Logan struggled to get free. The redhead leaned forward, whispering into his ear.

"You fucked up, Logan. If I see you make another move on my girlfriend, you're dead, fucko," she grinned as she whispered. "And just to make sure you understand…" She pulled out a switchblade, cutting open Logan's jacket at the hem of his left sleeve. The blonde panicked, still struggling to get free. _Why is she so fucking strong? Goddammit, I gotta get-_

His thoughts suddenly stopped at the feeling of Alexis dragging her switchblade down his arm, the cold metal piercing the skin. "**FUCK**, what the fuck is wrong with you?! Why do you fucking hate me so much, you cunt?!" The female grabbed the back of Logan's head, smashing it against the brick. Alexis kept going until she felt the man in her hands go limp, tossing him onto the ground. She looked down at the unconscious blonde, smirking and squatting next to him. Running her finger across his now bloody forehead, Alexis licked her finger clean before getting up and walking away. The alleyway went silent as the blonde's forehead and arm stained the pavement with red.


	9. Chapter 9

"Alright, later, Joey," Gene smiled, watching the guest guitarist take his leave.

Humming to himself, the chocolate haired man gathered up the guitar and his keyboard. Losing his grip on the car keys, they fell to the floor. "Crap," Gene muttered while setting down the guitar. He put his weight on one knee on the floor to grab them, but before he could, a pale hand snatched them up. Looking up, Gene's eyes locked with emerald green ones. Inches away from them, Gene backed up a bit. It was a tall, blonde man, freckles scattered around his cheeks. The man stood up and smiled, reaching out a hand for Gene to help him up. Gene sat there, lost in thought about him.

"You alright?" the man asked quietly, his face forming a worried expression. Gene felt his face heat up before grabbing the blonde's hand. "Ye-yeah! Thanks," he replied, a grin on his face. Handing him the keys, the blonde smiled back. "You were out there on the keyboard, weren't you?" he asked. Picking up Logan's guitar, Gene nodded, "Yup, that was me alright."

"I know everybody else was focusing on your blonde friend, but I think you were pretty good," the blonde gave him a genuine smile. Gene blinked in disbelief, looking around before pointing at himself. "Wait, _me_? No, no…I'm…not that good," The chocolate haired boy laughed nervously. "I mean, I didn't do much except the beat and stuff." The blonde laughed. "I beg to differ. Oh, I should probably…introduce myself. I'm Scott," he said. "I'm Gene," Gene said.

"So, uh, why are you back here? I thought they didn't let anybody who doesn't work here backstage," he asked. Scott gave another grin; he happened to be full of them. "My uncle's the owner, so..." The lights above the two shone brightly, the light hitting something on Scott's right ear. Gene tried to catch a glimpse of what it was. The light hit it again, causing a small silver earring to shine. Gene felt his heart skip a beat. _Oh, God._

"You sure you're okay? You're acting weird," Scott questioned him. Blushing, Gene tried to get ahold of himself. _Why am I so nervous? Usually I'm the one charming the shit out of the guy, not the one being charmed…well, not intentionally. I mean he's not exactly coming onto me…but he is gay, right? The earring and all…_ Gene continued to have a mental battle with his thoughts, causing Scott to grab him by the shoulders and shaking him.

"Gene, c'mon! What's wrong?" the green eyed man said with worry. Gene snapped back to reality. "Sorry, I was just...uh, spacing out about what I'm gonna do when I get home," he mumbled before blushing again, considering if he should ask Scott to come over. _Too soon, besides he's probably taken. _Gene thought. "I'm kinda worried about you, do you want me to help you carry all this stuff to your car?" Scott asked, starting to take the guitar from Gene, not bothering to wait for an answer. "Oh, no, you don't ha-"

"No, I think I do," Scott chuckled, looking into Gene's brown eyes. Gene gave in. "O-Okay…" he said, his words in an "I would do anything for you" tone. _Damn, and the car looks like shit, too… _Opening the exit that Logan had left through, Scott held the door. "Ladies first," he joked. Walking out the door and into the alleyway, Gene scoffed. "I take insult to that!" he laughed before stepping in a puddle. Looking down, Gene lifted his shoe. "Why am I always stepping in…" his words trailed off as he realized it wasn't water. The smell of rust filled the air, and Gene looked down the alleyway. His eyes widened in horror.

"Oh my fucking God! _**Logan**_?!" The sound of a keyboard hitting the ground and splashing in blood echoed through the small alley. Running to his roommate, Gene practically threw himself beside the bleeding man. _His arm…_ Gene thought, ripping off the dirty jacket sleeve Alexis had cut open. He tore off a small part of his shirt, holding Logan in his arms as he tied the fabric around the bleeding arm. Scott ran to Gene after gently placing the guitar against the wall. "I-Isn't that your friend?"

Gene frantically nodded before checking for a pulse. Still there. He sighed in relief, getting up and looking at Scott. "Can you get the instruments, we gotta take him to the hospital," Gene looked down at the ground, the knees and shins of his pants stained with Logan's blood. "He lost a lot of blood. Like, more than the normal amount," he panicked, then turned to Scott. "Usually, I don't trust strangers, but can you get the car for me? It's the crappy red Camaro with the Banjo bumper sticker, go!" "Banjo?" Scott looked at him, picking up the keyboard and guitar. "I don't have time to explain, just go!" The blonde nodded before sprinting off with the keys.

Scott kept his eyes on the road as he drove in the direction of the hospital. Gene was still shaking in fear, still crying, still holding Logan in the back seat. Looking down at the bloody blonde in his arms, Gene had to wipe his nose with his sleeve, which was now soaked. "Thanks for this," the trembling man said. Scott nodded, "No need to thank me, really." Gene shook his head. "No, really…I probably wouldn't be able to drive while crying, so…" He wiped his cheeks, slightly embarrassed. The first real time they went somewhere together, and it had to be a hospital to put his roommate in. Oh, and it didn't help Scott saw him at one of his most vulnerable moments, either.

Scott looked at Gene from the rearview mirror. "Hey, it's fine," he smiled. Gene smiled back, his little black heart on his cheek smudging into a dirty black mess.

Once at the hospital, Scott helped Gene carry Logan inside. The ER nurses quickly took him from them, putting him on a stretcher and rolling away with him. Receptionists pestered the two with medical questions before telling them to sit in the waiting area. Gene held himself as Scott put an arm around him, a worried expression on his face. "He's gonna be just fine, Gene," he tried to reassure his friend. "It's gonna be a while before they let you go back there, though," Scott said, "C'mon, let's go outside. I know a secluded place." Gene blushed. Secluded? Alone? With him? Nobody else? "Yeah, sure," the shorter man nodded. The dirty blonde smiled and led the way.

Holding his head with his elbows propped up on his thighs, Gene sat next to the taller blonde on the carefully crafted white wooden bench. Scott frowned with a hand on the back of the man, watching him. "Gene, um, sorry if this is a bit forward, but you seem pretty attached to Logan. Are you two…?"

Gene blushed and opened his eyes, staying in position. "N-No, we're not…a thing. But…Christ why am I doing this; can I tell you a secret?" He sat up, looking miserably down at the ground in front of them. Scott blinked, a bit shocked to see Gene be so trusting to a complete stranger so soon. "Uh, yeah, sure," he said.

The chocolate haired man looked away before mumbling, "I've always had a crush on him. I tried to make it obvious, but he didn't really catch on, so I stopped trying after he made it apparent he wanted my sister. It hurt a little, but he's straight, I mean I can't really make him gay. God, if I could, my life would be so much easier. Anyway, I dunno, it's been on my mind for the past few weeks, sorry if I creeped you out or something."

Scott smiled, his cheeks a shade of pink. "You're joking, right? I thought you caught on," he chuckled a little. Gene turned red, then looked at him embarrassed, "Well, I don't know! I can't read minds! I thought maybe you lost the other earring or something, because I knew nobody like you would even want to talk to me! I mean the last guy who hit on me was this old man," Gene started rambling. Laughing, Scott covered Gene's mouth with his hand. "Maybe you shouldn't judge people so soon, Gene," he looked into his eyes, grinning. Gene looked back before widening his eyes and turning away. "God, I look like a wreck, sorry," He didn't have time to turn back, though, as he felt arms wrapping around his husky frame. Gene smiled to himself, placing a hand on one of Scott's arms. "Thanks."

Scott gave him one tight squeeze before getting up, slipping his hands into his jean pockets. "Come on, I bet they're looking for us," he said. "Well, you, anyway. They have no use for me, really." Gene looked up at the dirty blonde, blushing. "I don't care if they don't need you, can you stay with me? This whole situation…" Scott smiled warmly, removing one of his hands and reaching out for Gene's. The two clasped hands as Gene was pulled up. Gene almost wanted to keep holding hands before deciding against it. He wasn't sure how he'd explain it to Logan, if he was even conscious.

The sound of the ECG echoed throughout the small area that was designated to be a makeshift room, separated by curtains. Logan was still unconscious unfortunately, but thankfully was going to survive. The doctor assured Gene that Logan didn't have excessive brain damage. He was lucky, in fact: if he had been hit any harder, Logan would have suffered major trauma. As for the arm, it would take about two months to heal. Seeing as he would more than likely be unconscious for the remainder of the night, he would be kept in the hospital for a few days, only so they could be sure he would be alright. He did receive a gruesome amount of damage, after all, and with how much blood he lost it would take a while.

Gene watched the nurses put Logan on a rolling bed and out the door into a hallway leading to countless rooms. "I'm sorry, but since visiting hours are long over, and you're not relatives of the patient, I'll have to ask you to come during visiting hours later today," a tall male nurse told them. He smiled at the two men, looking them over. Gene looked down, slightly less upset than he was when he came to the hospital. Scott frowned. "Gene, it's gonna be okay, honey, I promise," he whispered, desperate to see his new friend smile again. The male nurse watched the tall blonde slip his hand into Gene's, causing the musician to blush. "You guys are a pretty cute couple," the nurse smiled as he turned away to walk down a hallway, "Have a good night." Both men turned a bright shade of red. "We-We're not…" Scott started to say, but the nurse was already halfway down the hall.

Scott cleared his throat, looking away so Gene couldn't see his red face. He gently let go of the other man's hand then turned back to him. "D-Do you want a ride home?" Scott asked, smiling, still a little bit of pink fleshing his cheeks. Truth be told, he really didn't want to leave the musician's side. Gene bit his lip before looking at his own hands, fiddling with them. "Actually, Scott…" he trailed off. "Yes?"

"It's…been a long time since I slept at the apartment all by myself, and honestly I don't really like the idea of it," Gene mumbled. "Would it be a problem if you stayed overnight? W-With me?" He looked up at Scott, who was grinning. "I'd love to. Gotta stop at my place for a minute, though, okay?" Gene was impatient and shook his head. "No, Scott, c'mon! We can wash your clothes and you can wear something of Logan's," he whined. "Just…please don't go…" Gene whispered before being hugged tightly from the side. "I won't go, not ever again," Scott cooed into Gene's ear, petting him. The heavier man laughed quietly, "If you weren't so nice, I'd be creeped out by that." Scott smiled. "Let's go."


	10. Chapter 10

Turning the knob, Gene pushed the door open. "Mi casa is Sue's casa," Gene beamed as he stepped inside, tossing the keys to the end table next to the front door. It wasn't the cleanest apartment, but it was livable. The entire apartment was pitch black, considering it was almost 4 in the morning. "Do you mind if I shower? Hospitals are disgusting," Scott said, running a hand through his hair in disgust. Gene gestured towards the bathroom, "Go right ahead, I'm sure I'd love to see you change your clothes," he blurted out without thinking, causing the dusty blonde to laugh. "S-Sorry, I just…you're really…" Gene stammered.

Without a word, Scott leaned down and kissed Gene on the cheek before sauntering off to the bathroom. "I….what?" the musician was left standing there, dumbfounded. _He just…oh man, I gotta see this._ Gene bolted to his room, getting on the floor. He pushed aside a pile consisting of dirty laundry, papers written all over with unfinished songs, and unused textbooks. "This better work, T," he mumbled.

_"Hey T, remember that one time in middle school when you used to look in the boys locker room from the crack in the janitor's closet?" Gene asked as he unpacked._

_Tina turned to her younger brother after setting down a box of Gene's things. "Oh, yeah. What about it?" Gene leaned over and whispered, "So, I'm probably gonna have a lot of guys come through this place once me and Logan get settled in, and I found a crack in the wall under my bed in my room. Give me some pointers?" Tina made her way to Gene's room, crawling under the bed. The brother followed suit, pointing to the wall. The bespectacled sister pulled a small screwdriver out of her pocket. "Wait, where did you get that?" Gene stared at it. "You don't want to know," Tina said as she lightly chipped at the crack in the wall. "N-No, I think I d-" "No, Gene." "…Okay."_

_A small hole that would be unseen from the bathroom was made. As the siblings started to crawl out from under the bed, Louise looked inside the room. "Guys, I've been looking for you. I think I dropped Gene's dil-…what the hell are you guys doing under the bed?"_

_"YOU LOST ELTON?!"_

Gene had only used the hole once or twice, once on Logan, and once on Dylan. It wasn't very large, but it sufficed enough to be able to see up to the knees (or thighs, depending how short the person was). The rest of the time, Gene put a box in front of it. Nothing was worse than lying awake in the middle of night trying to sleep when all you can hear is someone urinating on the other side of the wall. Trying to fit under the bed, Gene slowly looked up the hole nervously. Scott's pants were still on and Gene already had a hard on. Blushing, Gene turned away and started crawling out from under the bed. _I can't do this_, he thought before bumping his head on the metal framing of the bed, causing him to jump a bit and swear loudly. Curling back under the bed, Gene held his head cursing himself.

"Shit, my head…"

The sound of muffled groaning came from the other side of the wall, stopping Scott from zipping down his pants. "Gene?" he called out, confused and worried.

_Shit. Maybe if I just try to-_ "FUCK!" Gene bumped his head once more. Before he could crawl away to safety, Scott quickly ran out of the bathroom and into Gene's room. Halfway out from under the bed, Gene looked up at Scott, prepared to explain, but all he could do was blush.

"Gene, are you okay?" The blonde asked, frowning and getting on his knees to help Gene out. Scott's pants were the only thing on, showing off the man's thin stomach and chest. No abs, though. Good. Because Gene didn't even like abs anyway. They look creepy. Like something is trying to burst out of your body. The dark haired man crawled backwards a little, blushing furiously. "U-Uh, yeah, I'm good. You good? I'm good," he rambled, "Why don't we all just hang out under the bed? Yeah, Gene, sounds like a plan!" Gene refused to get out from under the bed.

"But I wanna see if you're okay…" Scott frowned. Gene twitched a little. "N-N-No! I'm…I'm good! Under here!" he squeaked. The taller man glared at Gene. "I'm pulling you out of there, Gene," he said sternly, grabbing the larger man's forearms and dragging him. "N-No, wait! You…!" But it was too late.

Pants unzipped and a bulge the size of a water bottle, Gene sighed as he felt Scott's eyes on him. "I can explain, I swear!" Gene pleaded. Smiling and helping him up, Scott kept his eyes locked with Gene's. "Sweetie, it's fine," the blonde chuckled, starting to blush. "Although I do have one thing I want you to know." Gene looked at him, still slightly humiliated. "Yeah, what is it?"

"I'm not sure how you've treated your men in the past, but I'm not like that. I don't fuck on the first date, is basically what I'm trying to say. I know you're cute and you probably want your way, and I'm fine with that; I'm more of a bottom honestly. Anyway, I just don't want you thinking I'm like the other guys you've dated, alright?" Scott smiled shyly at Gene.

"…But we're not…wait, is this a dream? I'm not dating you, am I? I mean, not that I mind, in fact that'd be glorious, but…Was I drugged?! _WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME_?!" Gene freaked out, shaking the other man by the shoulders. Scott stared at him. "The Scott I've only known for a few hours would never even _consider_ for a second that he'd want a fat, loudmouthed musician like me, right?! I mean, seriously, where's the bong? What did you-?" Scott was giggling and covered Gene's mouth with his hand.

"Gene, calm down. I know we just met and all, but I really like you. Honestly, I don't know what you're thinking. I'm not gonna reject a guy because he likes to stuff a few extra Twinkies down with his lunch," Scott grinned, moving his hand away. Gene mumbled something about Twinkies not existing anymore. The tall blonde gently placed a hand on the other man's cheek, looking him in the eyes. "Gene, I think I wanna go out with you. What do you say?" Scott smiled warmly.

"I'll…Can I think about it?" Gene laughed sheepishly. Planting a kiss on Gene's forehead, Scott nodded. "No worries, take your time. I'm gonna go shower now, alright?" Scott smiled and looked down at Gene's pants. "Fap responsibly, cutie," he smirked, pulling up Gene's zipper before leaving the room. Blushing a bright crimson, Gene watched him go, still trying to figure out what just happened.

* * *

Slowly opening his eyes, Logan squinted from the bright fluorescents above him. Breathing in, the blonde realized there was something on his head, a bandage of sorts. Struggling to remember why he was in this hospital bed, Logan tried to sit up only to find that his left arm was wrapped tightly from the elbow above to his shoulder. He panicked silently, his memory failing him as he tried once more to come to a conclusion as to what happened to him.

"Logan!" a feminine voice that he rarely heard anymore echoed through the room. The man looked up, his eyes meeting a blonde woman and the bespectacled brunette man beside her.

"_Mom?_"

Logan felt arms wrapped around his now fragile frame. Wincing in pain from pressure on his arm, Logan sheepishly squeaked a hello before the mother let go. Cynthia looked over her son, frowning. She might not have had a great relationship with her only son, but she still loved him as much as she did the day he was born. "What the hell happened to you? Did that Belcher son try to hav-"

"Mom!" snarled Logan, "I don't know nor do I care how you found out Gene is gay, but I'd appreciate it if you didn't jump to conclusions just because he puts it in a different hole." Logan was not actually used to this; nobody seemed to care about his roommate's orientation aside from his mother. He tended to ignore her banter on how loving the same sex is wrong since he completely disagreed. Logan looked down at his blanketed lap, hands fidgeting with each other as he felt the heat in his eyes, trying to fight back tears. He didn't understand why she was like this. She used to be sweet and loving toward everyone when he was just entering middle school, at least he remembered it that way. He didn't understand how someone who used to be the best mom in the world turned into something so hateful and ugly. "I don't _want_ you here! Ever since I was in 7th grade you suddenly turned into this hateful, bitter bitch, and I don't know why! But-"

"**Because your father is a cheating, lying asshole**!"

Logan looked at his dad. "…What? Dad, wait, what did you…?"

"Son…I wasn't sure if I was going to tell you, but," his father said quietly.

"…I forgive you," Logan said under his breath, much more upset at the fact that his mom was still there rather than his dad's sexual activities with another man.

Stepping back a bit, the older blonde looked at her injured son with disdain. "Oh, I see. Gene brainwashed you. Along with that Louise again, right? You know if you had never taken that stupid hat you wouldn't be here in this damn hospital. Why do you even still talk to her? She's bad news, Logan, I've told you countless times she-"

Quickly looking up at his mom with tears running down his cheeks and fury in his eyes, Logan managed to let out a loud angry sob.

"**Mom, just shut the fuck up! You're wrong about Gene. He's fucking harmless. And you're wrong about Louise. And I'm never going to stop talking to her no matter what you say, because you know what?**" Logan angrily yelled as teardrops hit the warm blanket, "**Because I'm in fucking love with her! I ****_love_**** her, Mom!**"

Cynthia stared at her son like a deer in the headlights as her husband was looking at the wall, trying to block this all out.

"**And there's nothing you can fucking do about it, so just go!**" he let out one last scream as a nearby nurse pushed through the doorway to see what the commotion was about. Logan's mother trembled a bit, still processing the dilemma before her. The nurse concluded that it was indeed Cynthia that was causing this.

"Mrs. Bush, I think it's time you left," she said quietly, a bit scared of the older woman. The mother said nothing as she turned around and walked past the nurse and out the door. The nurse looked at Logan's dad, before smiling nervously and taking her leave.

The father looked at Logan sadly as he walked to him to hug his son. After an embrace, the older man spoke up to Logan, who was crying violently at this point.

"…She wants to get divorced in the summer," he confessed. Logan stared at his dad with pleading eyes. Logan always knew thousands of other people on the planet had lives that were a million times worse, but he had never felt more like shit than at that moment. He couldn't say a word; he didn't know what to say. He was too confused to continue crying, causing him to calm down.

"I'll call you in a few days to see how you're doing," Leaning forward, the man kissed Logan's bandaged forehead before leaving Logan behind to compose his thoughts.


	11. Chapter 11

The sound of thunder and rainfall was always Scott's favorite way to fall asleep. This night, however, was a different story. He found it hard to sleep knowing that Gene was in the living room more than likely a crying wreck curled up on the sofa as Scott was in Gene's bed, as per offered. The calls had been made by Gene to the rest of the Belcher family as well as Logan's. Scott lived with his mother, who loved him dearly, but unfortunately had such a busy schedule while being in the athletic career, therefore leaving Scott and his pet cockatoo Lemondrop to fend for themselves.

Scott had a mental battle with himself, trying to decide if he should get up and go comfort Gene or just stay in his bed. Before he could come to a decision, though, Scott heard the bedroom door creak open followed by sniffling noises.

"Hey, Scott, are you awake?" Gene hiccupped into the dark. Scott could just barely make out Gene's swollen eyes and tearstained cheeks. He smiled and whispered, "Yeah, c'mere." Rubbing his eyes, Gene gave a small grin before making his way into the bed, crawling next to the tall blonde. "Hey, you alright?" Scott cooed into Gene's ear. Trying not to cry, Gene simply clung to him, getting Scott's bare chest wet with the drying tearstains on his cheeks. Scott held him close and kissed the top of the dark brunette's head while rubbing his back. The two fell asleep in Gene's bed as the sky outside flashed with lightning.

* * *

Courtney pouted under her lavender raincoat's hood, holding her small purple umbrella as she walked alone in the rain. Her black rainboots were beat up and scuffed. Courtney had been walking to school for as long as she could remember. At least in high school, anyway. Her black nails were ruined with paint stains all over her hands, which she tended to cover up with arm warmers. She had been questioned a few times if she wore arm warmers because she cut herself, and she always thought it was ridiculous. She had enough problems without her blood all over the place.

Looking up ahead of her, she spotted someone down the sidewalk. A tall figure clad in only a black leather jacket over her usual attire, it took Courtney a few moments to figure out it was Alexis. She wasn't sure how to proceed; Louise had seemed unnaturally quiet about her new relationship with the grim redhead. Lost in her thoughts, Courtney didn't notice the jutted out edge of sidewalk in her path.

Scraping her chin and making a few skid marks on the arm of her raincoat, Courtney grunted in pain, then slowly started to lift herself back up with her arms, shaking. She had seen people do that in anime and movies and crap, but she never actually had dramatically picked herself up off the ground before. Before she knew it, Courtney was face to face with a pair of combat boots with chains scattered everywhere, a few resting on the wet ground.

Alexis picked up the purple umbrella then squatted on the ground, helping Courtney up. The smaller girl refused to look Alexis in the eyes. "Thanks," she muttered, in too much pain to be her usual naïve self. Courtney was the type who had never broken a bone, but with that came a penalty: she bruised easily. And the added fact she was clumsy didn't help at all. The natural blonde used the aforementioned arm warmers as well as leggings and fishnets, anything to help hide the bruises. Her dad wasn't abusive, in fact he was terrified when it came to violence, but Courtney knew that these days, everybody talks.

"Hey, aren't you Rabbit Ears's friend?"

Snapping back to reality, Courtney looked at her. It took her a moment to register that she meant Louise. "Uh, yeah, I am. Courtney Wheeler," she replied. Alexis let go of her, handed her her umbrella, and began walking away as if nothing had ever happened.

"Hey, wait up!" Courtney ran after the woman, not quite done with her yet. Alexis kept walking as the black haired girl caught up beside her. "Why doesn't Louise ever talk about you to me? Every time I ask, she-" "None of your business, babe," Alexis answered angrily. Courtney frowned. She may have been annoying, but Courtney knew something was bothering the redhead, and she wasn't about to give up.

"What's wrong?" she pleaded. Alexis looked down at the wet sidewalk ahead of her, eyes half lidded. _This chick isn't going to leave, is she? But why…?_

"Have you ever felt like a monster? Like you know you're hurting someone and you just don't care?" she said quietly into the air. Courtney looked at her, not saying a word. "Forget it," Alexis said, walking faster. She kept walking before she felt a hand slip into her own.

"The first step in destroying that monster is admitting you have a problem…and I'm proud of you," Courtney smiled, squeezing Alexis's hand. The redhead blushed. Courtney was a looker for sure, but for most it was because of her purple tipped hair and hipster glasses. Alexis was confused, shouldn't she be giving off a scary demeanor with her countless tattoos? "Get lost, kid," Alexis snarled. Courtney just laughed. "We're the same age…" The redhead sighed, clearly annoyed.

"God, you're clingy," she groaned. Courtney's mind flashed back to her brief romance with Gene. Her eyes dulled as she sadly remembered the one sided relationship. Alexis took note of this. "What's up?" she asked, disgusted to realize there was a hint of worry in her own voice.

"Just thinking of the past," Courtney mumbled, the grip on her umbrella handle loosening, causing the umbrella to fall once more.

Picking up the open umbrella, Alexis stood close to the other girl, holding the umbrella under the two. They stayed this way in complete silence all the way to school.

* * *

Gene stirred a bit before waking up. It was midafternoon at this point. Sitting up in his bed, the larger man looked down at the sleeping blonde before him. _Oh God, he even looks cute __**sleeping**__. _Eyeing Scott's lips, the musician blushed. _No, I shouldn't…but…he __**is**__ asleep…he won't know, right? Yeah…_

Leaning down, Gene felt his face heat up as his lips moved closer. _What am I doing…?_ He sat back up. _…Something I really want to do…so, it's okay, right? One kiss. He won't even know I ever kissed him._

Taking a deep breath, Gene leaned down somewhat fast, feeling his face heat up once more the moment their lips touched. His eyebrows furrowed in paranoia, just wanting to kiss him quickly and go. _Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygo-_ Gene started to slowly lift his head back, almost parting his lips from Scott's before he felt a hand on the back of his head pushing him back in. Scott's cheeks flushed as he kissed Gene back softly. Gene just froze the entire time in shock and amazement. He still couldn't accept the fact this guy liked him, let alone was currently kissing him.

After what felt like ages but was only seconds, Scott took his hand away from the chocolate hair he had desperately wanted to run his fingers through. Gene exhaled, still blushing. "You're awake," he said nervously, moving his head away from Scott's. The blonde giggled, "Good morning." He smiled warmly.

"…Yes."

Scott sat up, looking at Gene. "Yes what?" he asked, confused and somewhat dazed from just waking up. The other man smiled, blushing.

"Yes, Scott, I'll go out with you," Gene whispered nervously, red as all holy hell. Scott grinned, his eyes brightening a tad. "R-Really?!" he beamed. The larger man nodded, smiling shyly. The dusty blonde leaned forward and kissed Gene on the forehead before getting up and picking up his dirty shirt from the floor. It was at that moment that Gene realized Scott had slept in his boxers. "Um, hey, Gene, could I…" Scott turned to him, Gene looking flustered, "…borrow a shirt?" As he finished the sentence he ended it with a chuckle. "Dude, I'm not like frickin' Jason Mewes over here; I mean, I'm not that good looking," he laughed. Gene smiled a bit. "You're right. You're better than him, Scott," he teased, getting up and started walking out the bedroom door. "I'm gonna go get a shirt from Logan's room," he said. Scott waited. "You know I meant Jason Mewes in the 90's, right?" Gene yelled after him. Scott just laughed, "Yes, Gene."

"Dammit, his room is locked," Gene groaned as he came back into the room moments later. Scott shrugged, "I don't mind, I mean, I guess I could wear a shirt of yours or something? Why is his room locked, anyway? We're on the second floor." Gene started going through his closet. "He's paranoid, it's a long story that's a lot more involved than you think and to be honest I forgot most of it. I was being mind numbed at the time by Jersey Shore, anyway. I wanted to see how bad it really was, and boy, it was worse than I thought," he said, pulling out a large red t-shirt. "No exotic guido dancers anywhere!" As he turned around, Gene slipped on a stack of old schoolwork papers he had carelessly thrown to the side. He fell into the closet, landing uncomfortably on a pile that was mostly garbage, shoes, and dirty clothes. Rushing over, Scott started to help Gene up. "Here, let me help you come out of the closet," he snickered before kissing Gene's cheek. Gene groaned, "Oh my _Goddd_, your jokes are terrible." The blonde laughed.

Slipping the red shirt on, it was a bit over sized for Scott, but it worked for now. "Eh, just throw your jacket over it," Gene said. Scott looked at him and smiled. The brunette looked at his now-boyfriend, blushing. "What is it?" Scott asked quietly, putting an arm around the musician, pulling him close. Gene just kept staring, his face turning crimson. "Gene, what's wrong, swee-" Scott was cut off as Gene wrapped his arms around him and kissed him slowly. The blonde blushed deeply as this was the first time they had kissed while he was completely awake. He shut his eyes and kissed back.

Louise rummaged through her locker hurriedly, her sister next to her. "C'mon Louise, Mom and Dad are waiting for us outside," Tina said as a friendly reminder. Unfortunately Louise took it as nagging and snapped at her. "I know, Tina, I'm not retarded! I mean it's not like he's gonna die if we don't show up right on time!" Tina grimaced, not expecting Louise to shout in her face. It surprisingly had been a while since Tina could last remember when Louise snapped at her in public like this. "Okay, Louise," she simply said, turning away.

"Calm your tits, Rabbit Ears," said a voice in front of Tina, startling the older but smaller female, causing her to fall backwards onto the hard floor. Sitting herself up, Tina rubbed her right arm in pain. "Hi, Alexis," she mumbled. The redhead scoffed and stepped back a bit, "You're her sister, right?" Tina nodded, not sure if she wanted to be here anymore. Louise helped her sister up with worried murmurs of "Are you okay?" before looking at her girlfriend. "Wh-What do you want, Alexis?" she said uneasily. "Just looking to see what you're up to is all," Alexis grinned before roughly grabbing Louise by the arm and kissing her. _Oh Christ, she tastes like nicotine, _Louise cried in her head. "Come over later. I need to do some stuff," Alexis whispered into her ear, "Oh, and if you don't show, I'll come after you, so don't bother trying to escape." Letting go of her, Alexis walked off down the hallway, walking into Courtney. "Watch where you're going, hot stuff," she said aggressively before disappearing around the corner.

Courtney walked up to the sisters, shuddering. "That girl gives me the creeps, she made me walk with her to school and it was all eerie and silent and stuff," she told them. "What exactly do you guys do together, Louise?" The girl with the bunny hat froze for a second. "They just hang out and do lesbian stuff," Tina blurted out, trying to protect her sister's friend from learning the truth. Louise glared at her, "Tina, first of all, I'm not a lesbian, I'm bisexual. NEWS FLASH: There is a difference. Secondly, Courtney, it's none of your business, alright?" Courtney frowned. "Alright, sorry. So, Tina, why are you here, anyway?"

Louise gathered up her belongings and shut her locker. "We're gonna go see Logan in the hospital," said Tina, who was adjusting her glasses on the bridge of her nose. Courtney blinked. "Wait, Logan's in the hospital? Why?" "We don't really know; Gene said it looked like someone had slit his arm with maybe a knife or something, but Logan won't tell anybody what actually happened. It's like he's shell shocked," Tina said, a hint of worry in her reply.

"Tina, let's go," Louise said, rubbing her eye. It was then that Tina realized her little sister looked completely exhausted. "I didn't get much sleep last night," Louise mumbled. The truth was she had been having nightmares ever since Alexis hit her at her apartment. "Hey, guys, can I join you?" Courtney smiled.

* * *

"_Loooo_gan…wake _uuup_…"

"Lin, come on, we can just come back tomorrow. He doesn't really look like he should be woken up."

A pair of ocean blue eyes opened from slumber, meeting a pair of green eyes encased in red glasses. Logan groaned, pain striking through his arm. Linda smiled. "Hey Logan," she said cheerfully but softly. The blonde looked beyond Linda: Bob stood behind her, the couple on the right side of his bed. A worried Louise, Courtney, and Tina stood on the left side. Logan's face brightened as he saw Louise. The girl in the pink hat smiled. "Hey, loser," she teased.

"Ahh!"

Logan suddenly felt something cold and wet seeping in his blankets at the foot of the bed. A frazzled Tina frantically picked up the flowers scattered around the bed. "Way to go, Tina," Louise retorted, watching her sister gather up the now unassembled bouquet. Courtney picked up the vase that lay on the sheets, frowning. "Courtney, what sort of questionable things have you done with that vase?" The girl with the raccoon eyes looked up at the door.

Gene stood in the doorway of the room, staring at her. Courtney blushed as the Belcher parents greeted their son. "Hi, Gene," Courtney cooed. The man walked in and stood at the foot of the bed, a taller man trailing behind him. "Mom, Dad, Golden Girls: This is Scott, we're sorta thunder buddies now." Louise rolled her eyes. "Welcome to a new side of hell," she muttered to Scott. The said blonde looked at Logan while slipping his hand into Gene's, shrugging off Louise. "Hey, I saw you on stage last night, Logan. You were really good," he smiled. The older blonde smiled back. "Thanks, man." Louise felt her face heat up at the thought of last night. _What the hell was that about, anyway? _As stubborn as she was, Louise couldn't help but think it had been for her.

"So, Logan, what happened to you? I mean, why are you all wrapped up, anyway?" Courtney asked casually. Logan looked down at the blankets in front of him, nervous. _I can't tell them Alexis did it, she'll probably find a way to kill me…shit. _"I got knifed by some drunk hobo," he lied, smiling sheepishly. He hated to admit it, but he was actually sort of scared of that crazy bitch. _Besides, Louise seems happy with her, right? …Right?_ Okay, he knew deep down Alexis was abusing her, but he couldn't bring himself to ask in fear of getting knifed again- or worse. He wondered if Tina or Courtney knew about it…

Linda looked at her phone. "Logan, you took so long to wake up that me and everyone else 'cept Louise gotta go," she said annoyed. "We do…?" Bob looked at his wife, confused. "Yes!" said Linda as she shooed out the older siblings and their friends along with her husband. Winking at Logan before she left, Linda rushed out. Logan blushed bright red. _Goddammit…_

Louise stared at the door, a puzzled look plastered on her face. "What…?" she spoke into the air quietly. Logan looked at the girl in the bunny hat, clearing his throat and speaking up, "Hey, about last night…"

She turned to Logan, smiling, a light blush creeping over her face. "You were awesome, Logan," she said in excitement. The blonde blushed and grinned. "Yeah, I am pretty awesome, aren't I?" Louise smirked then pulled up a chair next to the bed. "Seriously though, you were really good. Too bad you ran off before I could catch you, doofus," she playfully but gently hit his cheek with a fist. "Catch me? For what?" The ears on Louise's hat twitched a bit as she felt her face heat up. _To ask if it was for me, idiot._

"To…tell you how awesome the performance was, idiot," she said, a bit of hesitation in her voice. Logan smiled. Not exactly the answer he had hoping for, but whatever. "Oh, thanks. So, uh, Louise…" Logan took a deep breath before biting the bullet. "How're things with Alexis?" he asked timidly. The girl's posture stiffened.

"Fine. Fine. We're doing good," she turned to the blonde with a fake smile. Her eyes telling a different story, Louise looked scared. Logan pursed his lips tightly before nodding. _Usually she's better than this at lying. Shit, she probably does abuse Louise…_

"How did you get knifed?" Louise looked at his bandaged arm worriedly. The man shifted his position. "Well, it happened after the show; I'm guessing he was some hobo that lived in the alleyway that I had been walking down to get to the car. I don't know what his deal was. He was really strong, though," Logan frowned, looking at his arm. Louise stood up. "E-Everybody's waiting for me, so…" She looked at the bed nervously before suddenly wrapping her arms around Logan. He blushed furiously. They had hugged many times before, but this one felt different than all the others. Logan smiled and hugged her back, wishing the moment would never end.

After a good 15 seconds, Louise pulled back, her cheek brushing against Logan's jaw, causing some of the makeup on her face to rub off onto him. She stood up, smiling, not noticing the fact a smudge of her black eye was showing. "Um, Louise, your face…what happened?" he spoke up, worried. Louise looked at him confused until she caught her reflection in a mirror on the wall. She quickly covered her eye, backing away. "Uh, nothing! Tina was clumsy again and slammed her elbow into my eye! Gotta go!" The pink bunny hat's ears bounced as the girl started to run out the door. "Feel better, Logan!" Logan watched her go, reaching his injured arm out. "Louise, wai- shit, my arm," he grunted in pain. He sighed and rubbed the makeup smudge off of his jaw. _Louise…I can save you from all of this…_

Looking down the hallway, Louise ran to her sister who then hurriedly helped escort her to the bathroom with her backpack. _I'm sorry, Logan. I'll fix this on my own, I promise…_

* * *

"Mom, I'm home," Louise said into the room, clutching the edge of her jacket. No one answered. Instead of coming into the house from the front of the restaurant, this time Louise slunk into the alley behind it and getting in from there. _They're probably downstairs…Thank God. _She slipped into the bathroom for a moment before retreating to her room.

Louise shut the door, leaning against the wood and sinking to the floor. She slipped off the jacket and tossed it aside, blood on the inside of the right sleeve and her phone sliding across the carpet. Bringing her knees up to her chest, the girl put her head down and held her legs. Her hands tensed up, looking like she was going to rip her own legs off. _Fucking Alexis…_ Louise slowly sat back up, shakily unfolding her right arm, which she had wrapped sloppily with toilet paper that was covered in blood. No one could see this. **No one.**

_"Alexis, what the __**fuck **__are you doing?!" screamed Louise as her mentally unstable girlfriend laughed while using a toothpick to etch something into the tied up girl's arm. "Just making sure little Logan can get the message," she smiled, ignoring the blood seeping out of the younger girl's arm. Admiring her handiwork, Alexis stood up after what felt like hours of painful scraping against skin. "Yeah, I think this'll do," she said in approval. Louise struggled in the chair she was tied to. "Why do you hate Logan so much?!" she yelled in pain, fighting back tears. "None of your business, squirt, now smile for mommy, 'my slut'," Alexis grinned before pulling out a Polaroid camera and taking a picture of Louise's arm. _

_"I like to keep pictures of my girls," she cooed as she pulled out the picture from the camera and shook it gently. She walked to the darkened side of the room and flipped on a light. Louise bit her lip, trying not to scream as she saw a wall plastered in hundreds of Polaroid photos of female arms with the words 'My Slut' etched into them. The wall and the photos had blood on them here and there. "You're the 59__th__ on my wall, Louise," Alexis smiled while tacking the photo on the wall. Louise angrily looked at Alexis and cried, "__**Why are you so fucked up?! I mean what the fuck did you-**__" Feeling the sting of the redhead's hand across her cheek, it only aggravated Louise more, causing the dark brunette to start screaming for help. Alexis smirked and watched her scream, crossing her arms. "The walls are sound proof, just so you know. It cost a lot to install, but damn was it worth it," she laughed. Louise kept screaming, but after a while she tired herself out, hanging her head._

Snapping back to reality, Louise realized she had started to cry. She didn't know why but she didn't care. She began to wail before holding her knees to her chest and putting her head down.

**_When I when I saw you,_**

Louise opened her eyes at the noise, head still down.

**_I could see._**

The girl looked up slowly, trembling. _Logan's ringtone…_

**_I wanna wanna have you_**

Louise squeezed her eyes shut and ignored the call. The ringtone seeped into her head as she started to imagine _Logan sitting on a 3-legged stool with a guitar in his hand. He looked up at her in the crowd and smiled._

**_lying next to me._**

_"__**I wish that I could take it back, put you on my favorite track**__," the blonde belted out. "__**Play you on repeat!**__" _

_His eyes met with those of the girl in the pink bunny hat. _

_"__**And every day since then is incomplete.**__" He continued to sing, looking ahead of himself._

**_It's like Twisted Sister,_**

**_Meets Mr. Mister._**

**_It's like a rolling thunder meets a careless whisper._**

**_It's like Fleetwood Mac, Biggie and 2-pac in a game of Twister._**

**_It's like boy meets girl._**

_Logan looked at Louise again._

**_"It's like boy meets girl."_**

_He smiled._

**_"It's like you and me, girl."_**

_And then…_

**_"You'll always be my girl."_**

_Logan blushed._

Louise got up unsteadily, picking up her phone and flopping onto her bed, lying on her side. She ripped the toilet paper off of her arm, most of the blood gone by now. A lot of it had gotten on the toilet paper and her jacket. Louise looked at her phone and pulled up Logan's contact info, staring at it. Her thumb hovered over the call button.

_Why the fuck can't I just tell someone about this crazy bitch? It's not even that fucking hard…_

_This is stupid, why am I letting her do this…?_

Louise sighed before putting her phone on the bed stand, starting to fall asleep.

_Logan, save me…_


	12. Chapter 12

the reason for this taking so damn long is because a few weeks ago i had a seizure and i've never had one before so needless to say i'm sorta freaked out. also sorry this chapter is so long i just have plans for the next chapter and then i got lots of ideas when writing this chapter and i wanted to put them in and omg ok ill shut up now

* * *

Logan shifted in his sleep, murmuring something to himself. The hospital door slowly opened, only a shadow in the doorway. A closer look would reveal the figure was holding a butcher knife. As they walked in, Logan stirred in his sleep, causing him to wake up. He opened his eyes to find- no surprise here- Alexis hung over him with her knife, a maniacal grin on her face. Logan's eyes widened, his body frozen in terror and his throat tightening. The psychotic woman started laughing, her eyes bloodshot. As she lifted her arm, the knife gleamed when it hit the light. Her arm swooped down. The only thing that could be seen from behind the curtain was silhouettes: Alexis driving the knife into Logan's chest like a stake through the heart.

Louise's eyes flung open, her body sweating. She had been crying in her sleep somehow. Her bunny ears had been shifted slightly, but still on her head. Louise sat up, crying quietly while fixing her hat. She turned to her bed stand, looking at her phone. She grabbed it and noticed the time. 3:57 AM. Composing a new message, she started to type, using one arm to wipe away her tears.

**I doubt you'll get this since the damn hospital probably jacked your phone, but text me back.**

* * *

Louise sighed and pressed send, looking at her jacket on the coat hook of her door.

Curled up in the hospital bed, Logan stared at the curtain separating the room. No one was even on the other side; he was the only one in the room. What was the point? He wanted to look out the window, even if it was windy, rainy, and dreary outside. The room was cold. What the fuck was up with that? 10 floors, millions of dollars, and you can't even afford heating and cooling for one room? And he wasn't even on one of the higher floors; he was on the first floor of all places. What a bunch of losers. Logan hated this place with a passion. The nurse was always acting like she had an oak tree up her ass. Not a stick, an oak tree. Logan groaned and turned onto his good side. The metal frame under him started to make a loud vibrating noise. Leaning down, Logan slipped his phone (that he had snuck in) out of a spot in the frame. He read the message, surprised it was from Louise, and smirked. He started to type.

**You'd be surprised at my ability to sneak things into places.**

**Louise: Like your butt?**

**Logan: Shut up. (Besides, that's Gene's specialty.) Why are you awake?**

**Louise: Had a nightmare. Can't fall back asleep. (Who the hell is Scott, anyway?)**

**Logan: What was it about? (I have no idea.)**

**Louise: Does it matter? Why are you up?**

Logan rolled his eyes before typing.

**Logan: I hate it here. I can't sleep.**

**Louise: …Are there locks on the window?**

**Logan: The window in the hospital room? Why?**

**Louise: JUST GO LOOK.**

The blonde steadily made his way out from the blankets to the window. His cerulean eyes darted around the metal frame of the window while he ran his hand over one of the locks. Logan was just about to walk back to his bed where his phone was before lightning struck outside, the outline of a small figure appearing. The blonde's heart stopped for a moment as he jumped back, away from the window, almost falling to the floor. Another flash of lightning revealed the figure to be none other than Louise.

The bunny ears of her hat were wildly flying about, the owner smiling mischievously and blushing lightly. Logan stared at the young woman like she was nuts. He slowly pried the window open, exclaiming, "Louise, are you crazy?! It's after 4 AM on a Friday! You're not even supposed to **be** here!" Louise grinned before climbing into the room through the window. "Happy to see you, too, Logie-bear!" He cringed. "That's what your old hag calls you, right?" Only his mom called him that, and judging by a few nights before, he wouldn't be seeing her anytime soon. "Why the hell isn't there a screen on this window anyway? What a shitty hospital."

"Yeah, I've established that already. Louise, uh, about my mom…" he trailed off. Louise ignored him, looking around the room. "Uh, what are you doing…?" he questioned. "Trying to find one of those dumb gown things, what does it look like I'm doing?" she said, rummaging through cabinets. Logan blushed bright red. "What the fuck? You're taking your clothes off?!" Louise looked back at him angrily. "Not in front of you, dweeb!" The blonde laughed. "Oh, what a shame," he sneered. She threw a towel at him. "Perv!" she picked up a folded gown in one of the cabinets along the wall. Louise turned to Logan, spotting the curtain behind him.

Smirking, she got behind the curtain, dragging it so it surrounded her. Logan stared at the curtain, blushing. "You know you could just go to the bathroom over there, ri-" the man said before being cut out by a wet green shirt flying from above the curtain and landing on his head. He sighed, keeping the shirt on his head. A grunt of disapproval was heard from the girl on the other side of the curtain. "What is it?" Logan asked, taking the damp shirt off his head. "My hat is all wet," she said, annoyed, "and it's just making me more cold."

"Then take it off?" The girl laughed. "You're joking right? It's fucking hideous back there. And so am I." Logan fought back the urge to object, but instead went over to the lightswitch and turned it off. "Here, we can keep the lights off, how does that sound? And you can keep it with you until it dries, and then you can put it back on." Louise sighed, pulling back the curtain, dressed in a hospital gown and her hat. Too dark for Logan to tell, Louise had kept her long sleeved shirt on to hide her arm. Before she could take her hat off, she felt it being lifted off of her head. "Goddammit, Logan!" she snarled, the blonde snickering as she snatched it out of his hand. "Just like old times, right?" The young woman hit him in his stomach. He let out a pained groan. "Little bitch," Louise teased. She took her hat away from Logan, looking at it in the dark. "Logan…do you know you're the only one besides my family that has seen under my hat..?" Logan straightened up, a hand on his stomach. "Well, yeah, I figured," he said. "Wait, what about my friends?" Louise sighed and went to the bathroom, twisting her hat above the sink, getting the water out. "They had the attention span of a fly; when I put my backpack on my head to cover it, they had been watching some bimbo from your school." The blonde man watched her as he settled back into his bed on his back. "Hey, that bimbo just so happened to be the object of my affection back then. So _why are_ you here?"

Louise stepped out of the bathroom, then got on Logan's bed. "Wait, I thought you were gonna sleep …over...there…" The blonde trailed off as Louise hissed "move over a little" and curled up under the blankets next to him. She wrapped her arms around Logan's waist, resting her head on his chest, her face starting to heat up. He blushed deeply, looking down at her as he wrapped his arms around her. She looked like she had already fallen asleep. "Well, that was quick," Logan whispered, smiling. He put a hand on the top of her head, his heart sinking as he felt the back of it. Running his fingers over the scars and stitches along the top and upper back of her scalp, he sighed heavily. The scars had no hair over them, making them completely visible, hair growing around them.

"You have no idea how much you drive me crazy, Lulu," Logan whispered to her sleeping body. "And I don't care what you say about yourself," He looked at the hat in her hand and gently uncurled her fingers from it. Smiling, he looked at the hat, which had dried considerably in such little time. He placed it snug on Louise's head, kissing her forehead. "But you're beautiful." As Logan shut his eyes, Louise opened one, giving a small smile.

* * *

Alexis sighed, looking at the ceiling of her ratty apartment, a mirror on it. The redhead sighed and ran a hand through her hair. _Shit, my roots are starting to show again_, she hissed to herself in her head, looking at the black hair stemming from her scalp. The woman then noticed her hand, examining her skin color. _Why the fuck am I so white? I'm not even, like, 40% German… _

She thought back to earlier that day, then looked at her phone. The background was of a young girl of Hispanic descent, about 7. She had jet black wavy hair and blue eyes, and a smile on her face. At the time of the picture, the girl's hands were a blur but faintly made signs. The woman smiled a bit before sitting up. "I wonder where you are now…" Alexis whispered, smiling sadly and looking at a framed picture on her dresser, the picture being the same exact image of the girl. "I'm just glad Grandma had this picture of you to let me keep…_" I have to stop all this, for her…I'm psycho; this isn't what she would want, right? I mean Jesus Chri-_ Her thoughts were soon interrupted by a new text message. She sat up. _The fuck? It's like 4 AM…?_

_"Hey, emo chick, what are you doing here so late?" Alexis strode up behind Courtney. She had piqued a strange interest in the shorter girl. The raven haired girl jumped a bit, startled. The necklace that had been in her mouth fell out. "Oh, hi, I was just studying for a test tomorrow," she said, flipping through a book. "My dad and step mom are pretty noisy and this is pretty much the only way I can get this crap done. Why are you here?" The taller girl towered over Courtney, her attention focused on the books on the table. Spanish and ASL? Alexis stared at it in shock a few moments before Courtney's voice brought her back down to earth. "Hello? What are you looking at?" Courtney questioned before looking at the books. "Oh, this? It's just books for-"_

_Alexis started furiously signing words to the girl. __**¿Sabes la lengua de signos en espoñal?**__ Courtney looked at her, confused. "What…? Is that another language you're signing? I just started Spanish, so…" The redhead frowned. "Oh," she said, annoyed. "I asked if you knew sign language in Spanish, but you obviously don't, so forget it."_

_The purple tips of Courtney's hair started moving a bit as she began to sign. __**I know ASL.**_

_Alexis sighed as the two began to converse silently. __**That's just as good, I guess…**_

**_Why did you ask if I knew sign language in Spanish?_**

_Alexis smirked. __**It's called LSE in Spain.**_

_The other girl continued signing with a puzzled look on her face. __**You're from Spain?**_

**_My parents are from Spain. We moved from there after my sister turned 7. She's deaf and only knows LSE. I learned ASL once we got to America because I was going to teach her it, but things got in the way, so it never really happened…_**

_The glasses on Courtney's face lowered a bit as she quickly signed back with ease. __**Oh. I didn't know you were Hispanic. You look German if anything.**_

**_Yeah, I get that a lot. My eyes aren't actually blue. _**_Alexis signed before pulling a contacts case out of her bag. Courtney smiled a bit. __**Can I see you without your contacts? **__The half Hispanic woman blushed before putting her bag down on the table. __**Uh, sure? **_

_Alexis sat down and after a few minutes the blue contacts were out, her chocolate brown eyes facing Courtney. __**You look better with brown eyes.**__ Courtney smiled. __**Thanks…**__ Alexis looked down before quickly putting them back in._

**_Why did you put them back in? You looked good_**_, Courtney signed. Alexis kept her hard gaze on the table. A pair of angry brown eyes looked back at her in her head. "Alexis?"_

_Courtney shook Alexis's shoulder somewhat roughly, bringing the woman back to reality. "What?" she hissed, grabbing the smaller woman's wrist violently. Courtney looked back at Alexis, concentrating on her eyes. Something wasn't right. She calmly placed her hand on the angry woman's free hand, squeezing her hand. __**It's alright**__. Alexis's eyes widened, seeing a different pair of blue eyes in Courtney's. The redhead let go, feeling her eyes heat up with tears._

_"I have to go," Alexis said as she rushed out without her contact lens case. Courtney called after her to wait, but it was no use. Sighing, she pushed back her glasses and picked up the case and slipping it into her pocket._

Alexis looked at her phone, 1 new message from a number not saved in her contacts.

**hey! It's courtney. I got your number from louise. :)**

The redhead gagged. She didn't think Louise would want anyone talking to her. And of all people, it had to be this airhead.

**Alexis: Wtf r u doin up 4 am?**

**Courtney: uhh I could ask the same for you, lol. Idk I cant sleep**

**Alexis: Idk y im up either. Thinking bout shit I guess**

**Courtney: like what? your life in the fabulous spain? Lol**

Alexis stared at the screen. She shook her head and bit her lip, starting to type something out before the lights went out. "The fuck?" Alexis got up from her bed and looked out the window at the power line a good 40 feet away. It had been broken from getting tangled in a tree branch. "Oh Christ," she said as she typed out a message. **my power just went out…shit and my phones gonna die**

The woman almost dropped her phone when she read a text from Courtney inviting her to come over.

* * *

"My parents are out in Chicago for some promotional stuff my dad did," Courtney said, causing Alexis to perk up at the mention of the city. "The only reason I'm doing this is because you're Louise's girlfriend, and I'm sure she'd do the same for you," Courtney grinned as she led the taller woman down the hall. _Hah, doubt it…_ The lesbian scoffed, "Chicago sucks. And I'm only doing this because you're Louise's friend." How was this girl so goddamn happy all the time? Courtney opened the door to her room, humming happily. "Alright, well, this is my room, you'll be staying here," she chirped.

Alexis looked around the room. Purple everywhere; posters of crappy pop singers were plastered on the wall. One in particular caught Alexis's eye: "…Selena Gomez," she said in disgust. Courtney nodded. "Yeah, why? You don't like her?" The taller woman looked down at her boots. "She just brings back bad memories, okay?" Courtney frowned. "Sorry, do you want me to take it down?" Alexis looked back up at her with a face that read "Are you crazy?" "Wha-No! Man, you're weird," she muttered. _Why would she do all this for me?_ Courtney smiled then rubbed one of her eyes. "Well, I'm gonna go to bed, night!" she said as she turned and walked out of the room.

Watching her leave, Alexis felt a pang of loneliness. She couldn't remember the last time that someone actually let her stay in their home. Slipping her clothes off and putting sweatpants on, Alexis lay in Courtney's bed, staring at the ceiling. After a good 15 minutes, the redhead drifted off to sleep.

* * *

_Stepping out of the cab while holding a younger girl's hand, a girl the age of 10 looked out at the small house in front of her. This was her home now, whether she liked it or not. And she most certainly didn't like it one bit. Helping the child behind her out of the car, the black haired girl looked her over. Blue eyes like their mother, wavy, curly black hair like their father. The older girl smiled at her, which in return granted her a smile back._

_"Alejandra, quit standing around with your sister and help us bring the bags inside," said an older, German-sounding woman in Spanish around the age of 30. With red hair and blue eyes, she most certainly did not look half Hispanic. Carrying a big suitcase out of the trunk from the cab and up to the steps of the house, the mother was being watched by the mentioned girl before her younger sister tugged on her hand. Alejandra turned to the younger girl, lifting her hands and making signs. __**Mom wants us to help bring our stuff into the house.**__ The little girl stuck out her tongue in disgust. __**I don't wanna! Allie, can you help me?**__ The older sister smiled and nodded._

_A tall, gruff man with dull, brown eyes stood next to the cab, paying the driver. Gathering the last of the family's belongings, the man carried them into the somewhat bare house. "Maria, where the hell is the TV?" he called out. The auburn haired woman returned from around the corner, frowning. "Juan, it's coming next week, I told you that already," she said softly, clasping her hands together in front of her chest, visibly shaking._

_Alejandra was helping her younger sister unpack her toys when the loud sound of a smack and a thud were heard from downstairs. The girl froze. Oh. Oh, no. No. __**No. **__He PROMISED he'd stop. Alejandra quickly signed to her sister 'Stay here,' before leaving the room and getting on the floor. She slowly crawled to the top of the stairs and sat on one, looking down below around the corner._

_Sprawled out on the floor, the mother struggled to get up as her husband screamed obscenities at her in their native language. "I worked my ass off to get us out of that shitty slum in Palma de Mallorca and get us into this crappy suburb of Chicago, and you don't even have the basics? You're a disgrace, you dumb broad. Why can't you make yourself useful and be as hot as those Playboy models? The biggest mistake I ever made was marrying you," was all Alejandra heard as she held herself. Hearing her father's footsteps coming towards her, the young girl bolted back into the room she shared with her sister. __**Adriana, Dad's really angry, don't bother him, okay?**__ she frantically signed. Adriana frowned and nodded half-heartedly. The girl had no idea how blessed she was to not hear their father abusing their mother every night and day. It had been this way back in Spain, too._

_It continued like this for almost a year. Mr. Alvarez always found a reason to hit his wife every night. It didn't matter how serious it was, even the littlest of problems would result in a beating. The sisters stayed close together, even in grade school. There were no others who knew LSE. Alejandra took it upon herself to learn ASL, something she wanted to teach to Adriana. But it never happened. The day Alejandra turned 11, she snapped._

_She just couldn't take it anymore. Her father had been screaming at Maria all day for not being able to have a cake for Alejandra (Deep down he only wanted some for himself). Later that night, Juan was screaming at his wife once more for something trivial. Alejandra finally stepped in. Tugging at her father's arm angrily, Alejandra didn't expect to be flung across the room. Her back shattered the glass of the mirror on the wall on impact. "Shut the fuck up, you little bitch! I wasn't talking to you!" the man growled. Adriana ran to her mother to help her up as her father stormed out of the room. The older sister struggled to sit up, clenching her jaw in sheer agony as she forcibly pulled out a large shard of glass from her arm. She almost felt as if she was going to black out, before her mother's voice broke into her thoughts._

_"Allie, you have to get out of here," the woman cried, holding her youngest child. "You still have my sister's address in that little notebook I gave you, don't you?" Alejandra nodded, crawling over to her mother. "Go. Go to her house, and from there, I want you to do something for me." Maria bit her lip before continuing. "There's no hope for Adriana out there in the world, that's why I want you to move. Move away. Your grandmother is in New Jersey; I want you to go there. Change your name, your hair, your eyes, do ANYTHING to make sure if your father ever came looking for you, he wouldn't recognize you." She was crying at this point. Alejandra objected at first, but hearing her father's footsteps accompanied by the cock of a gun and loading bullets, she quickly hugged her mother and sister goodbye. Alejandra was terrified to leave them behind, but she knew her mother knew what was best. Sprinting out of the house through the back door, Alejandra let out a shriek the moment she heard a single gunshot. She started to turn back, but Adriana was at the window, firmly signing no, tears running down her face. Running down the block, Alejandra almost got struck by a car dashing into an alleyway. Collapsing onto the ground, she pulled out her pocketbook and looked through it, staring at the address written._

* * *

Courtney trotted into her room, going toward the window to open the blinds. She was caught off guard by the sight of Alexis, who was crying.

"Alex! What's wrong? Did you have a nightmare?" The red head got up and turned away, wiping her face. "No, I'm fine," she mumbled hoarsely. Courtney sat on the bed next to her, and wrapped an arm around her. Alexis pushed away. The other girl sat in silence until something came over her.

"Alexis, why do you hate Selena Gomez?"

Alexis lifted her head from her hands, looking at the floor. "My sister liked her. She would sign the lyrics with her hands a lot, even though she had no idea what her voice sounded like," she said quietly. Courtney frowned. "Where is your sister?" Alexis almost gagged, a horrible feeling rotting in the pit of her stomach. "I-I don't know. I'm done talking about this," she hissed. Getting up, she walked out of the room, but Courtney followed close behind.

"Alexis, wait. I…decided to ditch school today. It's senior ditch day. It's, like, 9." Alexis looked at her phone for the time then shrugged, obviously not concerned. "And I did it because, um…" The redhead turned around, facing the shorter girl, who was nervously sucking on her necklace. "What? Spit it out, metalmouth," Alexis said, annoyed. "There's this special music gig over at Wonder Wharf today, and this guy I like is probably gonna be there because he's in a band and Louise's-"

Alexis laughed a bit. "Gene's gay, I thought it was pretty clear. Louise has mentioned him once or twice." Courtney sighed. "I know, but, it doesn't hurt to look, right? Anyway, do you wanna go?"

"With you? Like, on a date?" she snickered. Courtney blushed deeply, frantically shaking her head no. "No, idiot, I meant to go hang out! All you do is talk to Louise, come on, do something different for a change!" Alexis sighed.

"_Fine_, let's go." Courtney grinned, then spit out her necklace. She laughed sheepishly at the taller woman as it got stuck in her purple braces. Alexis smirked.

* * *

"Hurry up, buttface!"

Logan trailed behind Louise running through the crowd, trying to catch up. Almost tripping onto the ground, Logan just barely avoided a barrage of people leaving the amusement park. Louise went through the gate, the words Wonder Wharf above her. "Oh man, I can't wait to mess with the rides when the person running it is on their smoke break," she said as she came to a stop, clasping her hands together and rubbing them. Logan walked up behind her silently before grabbing her around her waist, picking her up and snickering. Flailing her arms, Louise pried her way out of his grip, blushing.

"What was that for, you turd?" she yelled, flustered. Logan laughed in her face. "You're the turd-" he started to say before Louise gave him a light punch in his left arm. She instantly regretted doing it as Logan held his arm in pain. They had been able to leave the hospital earlier that morning as Logan had spent almost a week there, more than enough time needed for his injuries. Louise started freaking out. "Fuck, are you okay?! Dude, it's friggin' bleeding!" Logan took his hand off his arm, blood smeared on it. "God dammit, Louise," he groaned, looking around. Louise pointed towards a red and white tent.

Flinching around a bit, Logan tried to stay still in the chair as the medical attendant wrapped a new bandage around the blonde's arm. Finishing the work, the man stood back up beside Logan. He shifted uncomfortably as Louise's eyes were glued to him. "Uh, is something wrong with your girlfriend?" he said, backing away a little before noticing her pink hat. Logan looked up at the older man, blushing. "She's perfectly fine, and she's NOT my girlf-"

"Lobster guy!" Louise chirped, slamming a closed fist against her palm. "You _STILL_ work here?" The man looked at her confused. "Wait, I know you. You're that little girl with the dumb bunny hat from Bob's Burgers. I go there every so often. I've been part of the medical staff on Wonder Wharf for years." Louise rolled her eyes, "Yes, I am the little girl with the dumb bunny hat, sir. But that's not the point here. I don't know why but I remember you from Lobsterfest, like, ages ago. You gave my brother that shot when he was allergic to that lobster we had. And the next year. And the next. And the next. You remember him, don't you?" "Um, I think…?" he said, not having a clue as to what she was talking about. "He's gay now," she said simply. "Lovely," the man replied dryly, "Now can you guys go now? My boss is gonna be here any second and I want to finish watching The Notebook on my iPad before he shows up." Logan held back a laugh, getting up from the chair. "That movie _sucks_," Louise scoffed, grabbing Logan's hand as she pulled him out of the tent. "**Spoiler alert:** the lady he's telling the story to is the chick he loved and now she has amnesia but then she remembers everything and then they both die because they're old n' shit," Louise called out behind her. She turned to Logan. "Courtney made me watch that crap." A loud "**GOD DAMMIT**" was heard over Logan's laughter as they walked away. "Oh god, are you serious? Some girl in my math class always cries over that movie but she wouldn't tell me why when I asked since she was too busy sobbing." Logan snickered. Feeling Louise's hand in his, Logan looked down at their joined hands. "Uh, Louise, you can let go of my hand now," he said quietly, wishing he had just not said anything at all. Louise jumped back, letting go. "Oh, ew, **_SICK_**, I got _Logan cooties_," she teased before gently pushing a fist against his pink cheeks. Logan smiled.

"_Oh god, hide me_," Louise suddenly bolted behind the blonde. "He's here." Logan looked at the quivering pink bunny hat behind him. "What?"

"Louise! Hey, Louise!" a redhead ran up to Logan. Logan looked at him, trying to figure out who he was. "Rodney?" he asked. The shorter man frowned. "Rudy," he corrected. Louise sighed and stepped out from behind Logan. "Well, if it isn't Regular-sized Rudy," she said, somewhat annoyed. Rudy smiled and waved to Louise. "Hey, Louise. Hey, Logan. What's up?" he asked. A girl with long light brown hair ran up behind the red head, hugging him. "Rudy, what're you- oh, hi Louise," she said, surprised to see her, "Since when did you come to Wonder Wharf?" The bunny ears on Louise's hat twitched as she groaned. "Hi, Normal-sized Jenny," she mumbled. "Can you stop calling me that? We're not kids anymore, you know," Jenny said, slightly irritated. "Oh, I'm sorry, Jenny, I wasn't aware those were boobs," Louise pointed to Jenny's small chest. "They definitely aren't normal sized, that's for sure." "_Okay_, Louise, let's go before-" Logan started to say before witnessing Louise grabbing Rudy by the collar and kissing him. The blonde stared, confused and jealous, all at the same time.

"Seriously, Rudy, you have horrible taste in women that aren't me, we should get together again when Jenny stops asking so many two part questions," Louise smiled as she walked away. Logan watched her leave before running after her, leaving behind a puzzled Rudy and enraged Jenny. "What the hell is your problem? That was in like 5th grade!" Louise flipped the bird, cackling and escaping around the corner.

"Louise, what the fuck was that about?" Logan asked, trying not to sound too upset, more over her kissing Rudy than anything else. The girl with pink bunny ears laughed and turned around, walking backwards. "I thought you knew me and Rudy were a thing once? Or were _going_ to be, anyway." The blonde sighed, "No, I knew that, but why did you just-" "Kiss him?" she grinned. "…Yes!" Louise hopped up on the stone border of the fence. "Because Jenny's a bitch and I love pissing her off," the dark brunette beamed. Logan rolled his blue eyes. "What did she even do you?" Louise stopped, narrowing her eyes.

_"Hey Rudy, what are you doing tomorrow night?"_

_"Why do you ask?" Rudy shut his locker and turned to Louise. "Because I want to beat you up! Why the hell do you think I asked? I'm asking you ou-" Louise didn't get a chance to finish, as Jenny strolled up next to Rudy and grabbed his hand. Louise just didn't get it. Jenny was one of the most popular girls. Rudy was one of the least popular kids in school, as was Louise (but that was only because she avoided everyone like the plague if they weren't her friend). Could it be that there was actual chemistry between them? Louise doubted it, as the irreversible unofficial laws of high school refused anything like that to be physically possible. Louise couldn't help but feel like Jenny was just using the kid: sure, he was sort of weird, but it wasn't terribly annoying or anything; what did Rudy have that Jenny even wanted?_

_"O-Oh, uh, I think I'm busy," Rudy said nervously; Jenny was all over him without it getting sexual. Jenny looked up from kissing Rudy's neck right at Louise. She smirked, her eyebrows knitted. She was obviously trying to say something. Louise gagged and turned around. As she walked away and Rudy proceeded to get smothered with kisses, the girl in the bunny hat yelled to them without turning around: "Animals! You're just a couple of savages!" Suddenly, Louise felt her hat beginning to feel loose. She quickly yanked down the sides of her hat. Louise's messy binder instantly fell on the floor at her feet, a few things falling out from impact. She turned around, only to see Jenny laughing behind her, a hand on the ears of her hat. _

_Louise hissed and lashed out at the taller girl, clawing her cheek with her nails. Jenny screamed in terror and let go of the hat, her heels slipping on the floor as Louise lunged towards her. Louise began to yank at Jenny's hair as she sat on top of her. The girl below her tried her best to get the ticking time bomb off of her with no luck. Holding Jenny's head up by her hair, Louise balled her hand into a fist. Several punches later, Louise was dragged off of the poor girl by two guards. "Fucking freak," Jenny groaned, sitting up, holding her eye which was probably bruised. She turned to look at Rudy, but he had vanished. "God, he's such a pussy."_

_"Louise Belcher, I haven't seen you in a while," said an older, balding man with glasses, sounding somewhat annoyed. "I was hoping I wouldn't see you in my office for the rest of the year, but I see that's not going to happen," he sighed. "Not that I don't enjoy your presence, but…" Louise looked at the man innocently as he sat on the other side of the large desk, just as many times as she had at Wagstaff. "Mr. Frond, you gotta believe me, Jenny started it with her big, dumb, ugly face," Louise smiled. The guidance counselor, much to everyone's dismay, decided that he should move on to bigger and better things, meaning being a high school guidance counselor for the student masses. To Louise's dismay, he chose to do the switch her freshman year of high school. _

_Mr. Frond frowned. "The principal told me to tell you the consequences of what you did today because he doesn't feel like getting ripped apart today. His words, not mine. Anyway, I hope you have nothing planned the rest of the week, because you're suspended." Louise groaned loudly then got up, standing next to him. "Oh, come on, Mr. Frond! Do me a solid? I mean, we're old pals, aren't we? Me n' you, we're tight!" she exclaimed as she playfully punched him in the arm and put an arm around him, using the biggest smile she could muster. "That's not how I remember it, Louise. Now leave. Oh, but could you ask your mother if I could borrow some of her knitting materials? I lost mine when I brought them to the beach. Damn seagulls," Mr. Frond said, muttering the last part._

_"Yeah, sure, whatever Mr. Frond," Louise mumbled, looking at the claw marks Jenny adorned her arm with while walking out the door. Louise being Louise, of course, naturally didn't tell her mother, who panicked at the sight of her slightly beaten daughter like a mama bird protecting its offspring._

"Remember that week you went on vacation last semester? With your bitchy mom or whatever?" Louise asked as she jumped off the stone border. The man nodded. "Yeah, what about it?" Louise's bunny ears bounced a bit as she walked back to Logan's side. "I sort of…beat up Jenny and got suspended the rest of the week," she said, laughing a bit. "Of course, the punishment wasn't too bad, just working at the restaurant the whole time I was suspended, by order of my dad." Logan rolled his eyes. "You would."

Surrounding the two were booths and rides of all different kinds; their bright colors drew them in. "Gene's coming here with Scott later, I think. Me and Gene are gonna play…" Logan said. Louise didn't listen. "Hey, do you wanna go on a ride or something, or…?" Logan said quietly. Louise grinned and looked at him. "Sure. You paid up front, right?" The blonde man shook his head in approval. "Then let's go, dummy!" Louise grabbed his hand, causing Logan to smile.

* * *

It was rather busy at Wonder Wharf that day. Most of the attendees were high school seniors. _I guess we're not the only ones_, Alexis thought to herself. For a brief moment, she could have sworn she saw Louise's bunny ears, but the redhead shook it off as the sound of Courtney squealing while eating cotton candy. Alexis looked over at the girl next to her, smiling to herself. "You really like cotton candy, Courtney," Alexis spoke up. Courtney smiled, "Yeah, it's the only thing I get when I come here. Have you ever had the cotton candy here? Oh man." Alexis looked away. "I've never had cotton candy, period."

The purple tips of Courtney's dyed black hair shook as the owner almost fell from the woman's confession. "You- You what?!" Alexis held back a chuckle. "It's no big deal, really. I just didn't really go anywhere fun as a kid…" she trailed off. Courtney shoved the cotton candy to Alexis. "You want me to try it?" the redhead looked at her. "Well, okay," she said before taking a bite. Alexis's eyes instantly widened, before she grabbed the cotton candy and started eating most of it.

"Hey, I just wanted to let you try a little! Give it back!" Courtney pleaded, moving forward. Alexis lifted her arm holding the treat, causing Courtney unable to reach. The smaller woman whined, jumping up and trying to reach. Courtney leaned her chest against Alexis's while attempting to get her cotton candy back. Alexis laughed a bit, looking up at the hand trying to get at it. She looked down, meeting Courtney's eyes with hers. Courtney's eyebrows furrowed as Alexis smirked at her. "You've got cotton candy on your face, Court." Alexis quickly leaned down and licked the cotton candy from the corner of Courtney's mouth, causing the girl to blush and step away. Alexis handed her the cotton candy. "What was that for…?" Courtney asked shakily, nervously taking the cotton candy from Alexis.

Alexis looked at the girl before gently lifting the tacky (or at least to her) hipster glasses off of Courtney's face. "Remember how you said I look better without my contacts? You look better without these stupid glasses," Alexis said as she tossed them into the trash. "Hey!" Courtney frowned, taking the glasses out and hurrying to a water fountain to wash them. Alexis watched her go, shaking her head.

* * *

Scott looked out the car window, trying not to laugh. "So, uh…tell me again why we're going to Wonder Wharf, Mr. Sexy?" Gene kept his eyes on the road, singing along to the song on the radio as they got to a red light. "I got a passion in my pants, and I ain't afraid to show it, show it, show it, show it!" he belted out then turned to Scott, leaning in really close. "I'm sexy and I know it," Gene said seductively before Scott pushed his face away with his palm, cracking up. "Oh my god, I'm in love with a psycho," Scott laughed. Gene kept dancing in his seat. Scott put his hands on his face, trying to stop laughing.

This continued for a while as Gene drove. "Oh, here comes the best part: …Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, yeah!" he sang as he pulled the car into a parking spot far from the entrance. As soon as he stopped, Scott scrambled out of the car and onto the pavement, yelling, "I don't know you!" The brunette dashed out of the car, the music still playing, and ran to Scott's side of the car. He got on one knee, tickling his boyfriend. "You don't believe in the power of sexy! Shun the non-believer!" Scott tried tickling Gene back in an attempt to stop the tickling altogether. Gene stopped, grabbing Scott's wrists and yanking him forward. Scott blushed as Gene kissed him, then looked frantically at the figures making the shadows that cast over them. Making panicked noises, Scott got Gene to pull away. "What?" the musician asked.

"Uh, Gene, this isn't any of my business, but normal people don't make out in a parking lot," Gene heard a familiar male voice and turned. "Oh, hi, Dad," Gene said casually, staying where he was. "Why are you guys here?" Linda smiled at the two men like nothing had happened as Bob shifted uncomfortably. "Linda wanted to come because she kept seeing people walking down the street towards this place. It's an unusually slow Friday, so I said yes," the older man explained. "Ooh, Bobby, can we go on the Ferris wheel?" Linda bounced a bit, clinging to Bob's arm. "Hang on, Lin," Bob said then turned to Gene. "Why are you two here? Alone. In a parking lot. In broad daylight."

Gene grinned at his father. "There's some kind of music festival that me and Logan are gonna be a part of or something." Scott got up, grabbing his partner's hand to help him up. "Why don't you ever tell me where you guys play at? I still haven't seen you up on stage with Logan," Bob asked, Linda letting go of his arm and wandering towards the amusement park. Scott took note of this and followed suit, going unnoticed by both of the Belcher men. "Dad, it's not that I don't want you there, it's just I…" Gene started to explain. "Yeah…?" Bob said impatiently. "…I don't want you there," the son smiled embarrassedly. The father sighed. "Okay, Gene."

Gene's ears perked up at the sound of Scott going "_Awww_." He was with Linda near the gate, peering at her phone. "And here's a picture of Gene when he was 5," the woman cooed. Gene's eyes practically popped opened and he rushed to his mother. "Oooookay, Mom, it's time to stop showing Scott baby pictures and time to start going to Wonder Wharf's ticket booth! Yeah!" Gene said as he put an arm around his mother and his lover, whooshing them to said ticket booth. Bob followed behind. "I still don't understand why you have to take pictures of pictures when we own them in the first place," he muttered.

Linda's posture stiffened up at the sight of Louise happily dragging Logan around, a large strange stuffed yellow creature in one arm. "Louise!" she shouted, but was not heard. The woman felt a hand on her shoulder, turning her head only to see her husband. "Let her go, Lin," he said before kissing his wife on the cheek. Linda smiled and placed her hand on the one on her shoulder.

"Mom? Dad?" The couple turned around. "Oh, hey, Tina," Bob started to say before noticing the bespectacled male at his daughter's side. "…And weird guy I don't remember meeting." Tina sighed. "Dad, you know Henry, the dorkiest guy in school, 3 schools in a row."

"Uh, no, not really."

"We went to Wagstaff and Huxley together?"

"Not a clue."

Tina groaned and looked at Henry. "Sorry that my dad doesn't remember you, Henry. Ugh, this is so embarrassing." She placed a hand on her head. The fellow dork shrugged and took her by the hand, wandering away from Bob and Linda. "Are they dating?" Linda asked. "I hope not, I mean she could do a lot better," Bob said rather loudly before getting elbowed in the stomach by his wife.

* * *

"I can't believe you missed and hit that booth guy right smack dab in the tenders! You have a terrible throw," the girl cackled atop the Ferris wheel.

"So, Louise, what are you gonna name this guy?" Logan looked at the large yellow cat-like creature in Louise's hands. "Hmm, I dunno…Chiyo-Chichi?" the girl looked at it. "Oh great, another one of those Japanese things," Logan teased. "Hey! Besides, he's not Japanese, he looks like he speaks English to me." "More like Engrish," Logan remarked. Louise looked at the toy then faced it to Logan, talking through it in a deep voice and with an Engrish tone. "Hello, everyone! How are you? Fine, thank you. I wish I was a bird!" The blonde man looked at the girl next to him in the Ferris wheel seat. "Why are you so weird?" Logan laughed. "Then again it's one of the things I like about you," he added somewhat quietly. "_Logan Bush_?! Likes my personality?! **NO WAY**!" Louise teased the man, hugging the cat against her stomach. "Oh, yeah? Well, tell me one thing you like about me, then, Miss 'I Have No Feelings,'" Logan spoke up. Louise's smile withered away as she looked down at the lit nighttime below them, the only light with them being the one attached to the top of the seat.

"You take me seriously," Louise spoke softly into the night.

Logan turned his head, looking at the crestfallen girl. "What do you mean?"

"I feel like nobody takes the time to actually listen to what I have to say. Everyone usually just passes off whatever I want to say as '_Oh, Louise's just being Louise again_," or '_Don't worry, Louise would never in a million years actually have feelings._' It's, like, since I was a kid I've built up this wall around myself with sarcasm and insults as my defense. But then you came along and broke through the wall and I…" The bunny ears on Louise's head seemed to droop as she spoke. "I mean, I know the only reason that you did was to bully me, but…"

"But…?" Logan asked.

"Logan, do you remember how we even met?" Louise smiled.

The corners of Logan's mouth rose a bit. "Well, my recollection of it might be different from yours. Some guy in my Spanish class was talking one day about how his brother got assaulted by a little girl in a pink bunny hat. I wasn't much of a popular kid in freshman year, kids tended to avoid me because I bullied since I was in 7th grade, so I figured if I got your hat I'd get attention. Looking back, it was really stupid, but I'm actually really glad I did it."

"Why?" the girl pondered.

"Because I got to meet this adorable little ticking time bomb that I thought I could conquer, and watched her grow up to be this beautiful, feisty firecracker that could kick my ass in a heartbeat."

Louise felt her heart skip a beat. "I'm not beautiful, not with what's under this hat," she said bluntly.

"Louise, look at me," Logan said in a serious tone, placing his hand on hers, using the other to put it on the side of her face when she turned her head. Louise blushed deeply as the blonde moved in before she shut her eyes and leaned in as well. The two were inches away from each other when:

"**YOU'RE A COUPLE OF SLUTS!**" "I think it's nice."

The two froze as they heard the brother-sister team, then proceeded to curse them out in their separate ways. "GODDAMMIT, GENE!" and "OH, COME ON!" were heard from the man and woman, respectively.

Sitting in awkward silence until the ride was over, Logan quickly bolted from his seat the moment the metal bar protecting them was lifted. Louise held Chiyo-Chichi close as she called after him. "GET BACK HERE, YOU PUSSY!" Walking up behind her, Gene and Tina stood next to her, watching Logan go. "Hey, that's what I called him, too!" the musician retorted. Louise's bunny ears shook as she looked at her brother. "Wait, you did? For what?"

Gene felt a shiver go down his spine. "Uh, nothing. Nothing at all." Louise looked at him angrily. "For what, Gene?!" The man backed away a bit, bumping into a pair of arms wrapping around his waist, Scott at the other end of them. "Well, you see, Louise, I don't know if there's a difference when a man really likes a woman seeing as I've only liked men, but…"

Louise stared at Gene then asked, "…Really likes?"

"Remember when Courtney 'like liked' me? Yeah, it's like that except Logan's not all over you like a monkey that has a really cool gorilla dad," Gene stated, grabbing Scott's hand. The taller dusty blonde stood behind Gene, confused as all holy hell. "I may or not have called him a pussy after he fled the scene at that gig we did at the pub because it may or may not have been Logan's way of telling you, 'Hey, Louise, let's make out because I really like you and have romantic feelings for you!' But you didn't hear it from me. Now, I gotta go, alright? We're up in like ten minutes." And with that, Gene and Scott walked away.

"I…what?" Louise said, dropping the plush toy to the ground. Tina put a hand on her little sister's shoulder, a big smile on her face. "I knew it! This is all going to according to plan, at least according to the friend fiction I'm writing," the bespectacled sister chirped as happily as her low voice could go. Tina picked up the plush cat-like creature from the ground. "Louise, did Logan- Louise! Where are you going?" Tina shouted. Her younger sister ran away, her mind in a daze_. Oh no. No. No no no no no. Not this crap again! I convinced myself about all the other boys that I liked them, but there is no way in hell I will give in for Logan!_

"She forgot her cat…" Tina said, looking down at it in her hands. "Your face sorta looks like…Jimmy Jr.'s butt."

* * *

Logan took a deep breath before looking out at the crowd in front of him. Gene had managed to snag a spot in the yearly music festival. The 21 year old still had no interest in making this a lifetime thing, singing was just another hobby, like skateboarding. Logan didn't plan on doing anything spectacular this performance, just sing then get out. As Gene started to play, Logan looked at Gene's friend, Joey, who had pretty much became a member at this point. Logan tried to swallow his fear as he took one last deep breath.

"**_Here we go again, I kinda wanna be more than friends,_**" Logan began to sing. "**_So take it easy on me, I'm afraid; you're never satisfied._**" Louise watched Logan as she stood in the crowd, her face still red.

**_Here we go again_**

**_We're sick like animals_**

**_We play pretend_**

**_You're just_**

**_A cannibal_**

**_And I'm afraid_**

**_I won't get out alive_**

**_No, I won't sleep tonight_**

Louise squeezed her eyes shut, wondering if this was all just a dream. Opening her eyes, she caught the attention of Logan, who had noticed her in the audience mid bridge.

**_Oh oh_**

**_I want some more_**

Louise blushed before lifting a hand and waving nervously, causing Logan to blush.

**_Oh oh_**

**_What are you waiting for?_**

**_Take a bite of my heart tonight_**

**_Oh oh_**

**_I want some more_**

**_Oh oh_**

**_What are you waiting for?_**

**_What are you waiting for?_**

**_Say goodbye to my heart tonight_**

Tina started to walk to Louise, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her. "She knows, Tina. And if she doesn't, she'll figure it out," Scott smiled. Tina stood still for a moment, then nodded and smiled back.

**_Here we are again_**

**_I feel the chemicals kickin' in_**

Logan shifted a bit while using his electric guitar, trying not to stare at Louise. His eyes kept dragging back to her, though, and latched on. As the blonde sang, "**_It's getting heavy, and I wanna run and hide, I wanna run and hide_**,"his thoughts told a similar story_. I'm sorry, Louise. I'm not really sure, but I think I probably fucked up everything between us. _Logan did his best to not show off that he was upset.

**_I do it every time_**

**_You're killin' me now_**

**_And I won't be denied by you_**

**_The animal inside of you_**

The chorus ringing in her ears once more, Louise couldn't tear herself away. _No, no, he doesn't, that's ridiculous, Louise._ She was interrupted by Tina, who held the plush in front of Louise's face. "I think this is yours," Tina said, handing it to her and walking away to give her room.

**_Hush, hush, the world is quiet_**

**_Hush, hush, we both can't fight it_**

**_It's us that made this mess_**

**_Why can't you understand?_**

**_Whoa, I won't sleep tonight_**

Louise stared at the plush.

**_I won't sleep tonight_**

Her grip on the cat tightened, whole body shaking.

**_Here we go again,_**

_Fuck._

**_Here we go again,_**

_Oh my fucking god._

**_Here we go again,_**

_I'm in love with him._

**_Oh oh_**

_I'm in love._

**_I want some more_**

_With Logan._

**_Oh oh_**

_Logan goddamn Bush._

**_What are you waiting for?_**

_This can't be happening._

**_Take a bite of my heart tonight_**

_But…_ She looked up at the blonde on the stage.

**_Oh oh_**

_What if he doesn't love me?_

**_I want some more_**

_Oh shut up, dumbass. You know he does._

**_Oh oh_**

_But what if it was one of his stupid tricks again?_

**_What are you waiting for?_**

_No._

**_What are you waiting for?_**

_He's stupid, but he's not that stupid._

**_What are you waiting?_**

_He's up there singing about a girl who he loves. Me._

Louise looked back down at the plush during the remainder of the song, but lifted her head back up to catch the ending.

**_What are you waiting for?_**

_He's got balls, that's for sure._

**_What are you waiting for?_**

_I don't know, honestly._

**_Say goodbye to my heart tonight_**

Logan smiled out at the audience, as did Gene and Joey, as they heard applause. Louise called out Logan's name as the band took their leave, but her call was left unnoticed.

_Now or never_, Louise thought as she found her sister and tossed her the cat. Darting through the crowd and around the stage to the back, Louise ran into Logan. She caught her breath. "Hey, Lulu, what's up?" Logan asked as he put down his guitar, smiling. "Logan, I gotta ask you something, and I'm not fucking around, I swear," Louise said, a bit of worry in her voice and her face bright red.

"Yeah, sure. What is it?" Logan asked, not noticing a familiar shadow creep up a few feet behind Louise. The chains of her boots made a faint noise as she stepped into view.

"Logan, will you go out with me?"

The blonde's cheeks flushed the moment she finished her sentence. "I…What?" _This isn't really happening, is it?_

Louise shouted at him. "**I'm asking you out, dumbass! Do you want to be my boyfriend or not, idiot?!**"

Logan blushed harder. "Well, uh…" he said, about to finish it off with acceptance. Alexis caught Logan's eye, who was standing behind Louise. The redhead took out her pocketknife and moved it in front of her neck, imitating slitting her throat. Logan felt his heart drop as he realized he had only one choice if he wanted Louise and himself to live. Knowing Alexis, she _would_ kill them.

"I'm sorry, Louise," the blonde choked before grabbing his guitar and turned around, walking away from Louise, who looked like she saw a ghost. "I'm so sorry," Logan whispered as he fought back tears and failed.

The girl in the bunny hat trembled as she felt tears run down her cheeks. Louise fell onto her knees and watched him go, the night masking his silhouette completely. Her mind was blank, feelings of fury and depression welling up inside as she started to cry loudly.

Logan started to run when he heard her cries from far away. _You don't deserve a pussy like me…_

Alexis lifted an arm, gripping her pocketknife and hovering over Louise a few feet away. She brought it down harshly, but before it made impact to the girl, who was now curled up on the ground, Alexis's arm was halted. She looked at the hand on her arm, black finger polish adorning the nails. Alexis looked behind her, facing an infuriated Courtney, her glasses gone. The redheaded lesbian's gaze fell to the ground as she pulled her arm back. Courtney pulled Alexis away, whispering _no_ to her.

Louise sobbed for a good 5 minutes before her brother and sister found her and embraced the trembling woman.


	13. Chapter 13

_Oh my god, why can't today just end already. _Gene stared at the clock on the theater wall while the professor stood at the center of the stage, lecturing away. It was only the beginning of the very last day of classes, and already Gene was ready to go home. The class itself, Psych 101, had already had their finals last week. However, the professor urged it strongly to attend today's class.

_This is a waste of time, I bet,_ he hissed to himself in his head while doodling on his notebook. _Man, I gotta work on my ninja robots. _Looking around the theater for anyone he could bother, Gene spotted a blonde near the front row of seats, far from where he was sitting. _The back of that guy's head looks like Scott's…not that I'd know, of course_, Gene reassured himself, ignoring the heat radiating from his cheeks. _Whatever, that's probably not him. If Scott was in my class, I think I'd know._

The musician pulled out his phone, composing a message. **Hey, where are you right now? **He looked up to watch the blonde in case he reacted. Sure enough, the man pulled out a phone moments later. A minute passed before Gene received a text back. **In the theater at school, why?** _Oh, shit, that really is him, isn't it? Welp, only one way to find out!_

Gene picked up his pencil and chucked it far from his seat. It landed near the blonde's backpack on the floor below. The blonde looked up from his notes and down at the pencil, confused. The professor saw the writing utensil fly from the corner of his eye but kept talking. "Oops, I dropped my pencil!" Gene said loudly before getting up from his seat in the theater chair.

Rushing down the stairs toward the stage, the larger man looked over at the blonde he had been observing from afar. It was, indeed, Scott. "Gene? Why are you-" the man with green eyes asked quietly before being cut off. Gene grinned and grabbed Scott by the collar, kissing him in front of the audience. The older man on stage stopped talking the moment he saw the two kiss, just as confused as Scott. "Hey," Gene whispered after picking up his pencil. The blonde man smiled a bit, still puzzled. The only Belcher son made his way back up the stairs and checked his phone.

**What the hell was that?**

Gene snickered a bit.

**Gene: I had no idea you were in this class, too.**

**Scott: That was a pretty weird way to get my attention.**

**Gene: I am pretty weird, you of all people should know.**

**Scott: Holy crap, this is incredibly boring.**

**Gene: Yeah...wanna go to the mall?**

**Scott:…What? Really? :D**

**Gene: Meet me outside the theater in a few minutes.**

And with that, Gene got up and brought his things with him and out the door. Five minutes passed until he was joined by his boyfriend. "So tell me why we're ditching exactly? I mean, I know we're going to the mall, but why the mall?" Scott asked as the two started to walk down the hallways of the community college. "Because I want to do something at the mall," Gene retorted as the boys left the building and ventured out into the parking lot. "I have another class but it's just a party so it doesn't really matter if I go or not."

"You're lucky that I don't have any other finals today," Scott mumbled. "You know I would have suckered you into going anyway!" the shorter man laughed. "Why did you have a pencil? I thought he _forbid_ those in his classes," Scott asked as he stood next to Gene, who was unlocking his car. "Like they say, the pencil is the gay cousin of the pen," Gene said simply. His boyfriend laughed quietly. "I have never in my entire life heard someone say that, Gene."

"Oh, shit! I forgot! The teacher brought cake," Gene exclaimed, stopping what he was doing. "At this party thing you mentioned?" Scott watched Gene run back towards the building. "WE HAVE TO GO BACK!" screamed Gene. The taller blonde laughed and followed after him.

* * *

Gene looked out at the road in front of him as he drove. "Bleh, why is there so much traffic? It's midday on a Monday. I worked all weekend at my dad's, it sucked ass."

"Hey, how's Logan?" Scott asked quietly, knowing the subject was a dangerous one at this point in time. The driver sighed. "Honestly, I don't know. He's been locked up in his room since Friday night. I know I should probably check up on him, but I'm kinda scared to." "Why?" the passenger wondered aloud. "I don't actually _know_ what he did to Louise. She won't even tell me what's going on when I called her on Saturday. I think I should just leave Logan alone for now," Gene said. "But what if he's done something to himself?" Scott pestered. "He's not like that, Scott, he sometimes talks about it but he's admitted multiple times that he doesn't have the balls to do anything to hurt himself, so I have reason to believe he's alright."

"I hope so," Scott looked out the window as they neared the mall. Once parked, the two made their way inside. "So where to first?" asked Scott. "Can we go to the food court? I'm starving!" Gene whined, his boyfriend laughing lightly. "Do you ever _not_ think with your stomach, Gene?" "Well, yeah; when I'm not thinking with my stomach, I'm thinking with my dick, and my dick says to go eat," the man beamed. Scott looked down at Gene's crotch then back up into his eyes. "You think…with your penis?" He tried not to laugh. "Yup! Doesn't everyone?" Gene looked back at Scott, confused. "Uh, no. Some people don't have penises," Scott chuckled.

"Oh. Well I find that highly upsetting," the musician replied as the couple approached the mall's food court. "Oh, hey! Mrs. Cookie Lady! Let's go there!" Scott stopped the larger man. "But all they have is cookies, right? Trust me, I know you, Gene: You're gonna have room for way more food than a cookie." Gene stomped his foot. "JUST LET THIS BE FUN FOR ME, OKAY, SCOTT?" he screamed before running to the cookie store without Scott. The blonde shook his head and followed Gene.

"Gene, how much did you spend?" Scott asked in disbelief as he stared at the array of food on the table. "Like, 15 bucks, why?" "Just curious. Is this what you normally buy at the mall? Food?" the blonde man took a sip of his drink. "And sex toys! Don't forget about the back of Spencer's!" Gene chirped. "Seriously?" Scott laughed as his boyfriend ate away. "Okay, it was only twice: one for Elton, then one time for Elton's replacement, RuPaul." Gene explained. The blonde across the table froze at the mention of the personality. "RuPaul? You mean like the drag queen?" Scott took another sip of his drink. "Yeah, although I'll be honest I think I only watched, like, one episode of that show. It was full of celebrities I'd never even heard of," said Gene, who moved his attention to a couple a few tables away. The man at the table was obviously trying to come onto the brunette woman.

Gene tried to hold back a laugh while Scott tried to work up the courage to speak. "Ge-" "Look at that guy over there. What a tool," he giggled as soon as Scott spoke up. Scott turned his head to observe the man. "He doesn't look like too much of a tool to me," he said. "Scott, honey, it's like a scientific _fact_ that anyone that wears Tapout shirts is a major tool," Gene replied. "Honestly, he'd look better in one of RuPaul's outfits." Gene's companion felt his face heat up, going unnoticed by the musician, who was still watching the couple. Scott took a deep breath, his eyes boring into the table.

"Hey, Gene?" he asked softly. Gene turned to face him.

"Yeah? Whaddup?" he said, half of his food already finished. "Hey, why don't you eat, you're so skinny, c'mon, eeeeat-" Gene started to shove food into Scott's mouth, who pushed his hand away gently.

"Have you ever cross-dressed?"

Gene's body came to a halt at the question. "Uh, well, a few times as a kid, but it wasn't because I wanted to. It was 'cuz I was weird. And because I wanted to. Why?" His mind wandered back to the night him and his sisters held a secret gambling casino in the basement. _Girls being girls being girls being girls…_

Scott fell quiet.

"Have you?" asked Gene.

The blonde's emerald eyes stayed glued to the table. A voice echoed at the back of his head.

_"Oh my god, Scott! How many times have I told you I hate it when you dress like a girl! I'm gay for a reason: I don't like women!" "But Ryan, it's something I like to do…I can't help I'm bi-gender…" "Yeah, well, it's fucking gross."_

The feeling of Gene's hand on top of his brought Scott back to Earth. "Scott, are you okay?"

"I, um…I may or may not…" Scott trailed off.

Gene smiled a bit then got up from his chair. The seated blonde looked up at him. "What are…?" Gene took Scott's hand, motioning for him to get up. "C'mon. We're going shopping," Gene smiled.

* * *

Scott kept quiet as he walked hand in hand with Gene, his face red. What was Gene up to? "What are you lookin' at, chump?" Gene said to a staring man as they passed him by, their fingers laced. "You ain't never seen two gay guys holding hands before? Why don't you treasure the moment by taking a picture!" The man frowned, somewhat frightened, and turned away. "It amazes me how ignorant this state is, even after they allowed civil unions here…" Gene mumbled.

"You know, I'm sort of glad you brought up cross-dressing; that's the only reason we're here today in the first place!" beamed Gene. Scott looked at him, confused. "It is? How did you…?" "Oh, no, I didn't. It was just pure luck that you brought it up is all! I've been planning on torturing you by dressing you in girl clothes for a few days now. Obviously it won't be torture, though, I see." The shorter man looked inside a store from where he was walking and stopped. "Scott, hold up. I wanna go in here."

Parting hands, the two men wandered inside the clothes store; it was mostly female attire from the looks of it. "Get ready to be _ultra_-**fuckable**!" Gene said before whisking Scott into a dressing room. "Just stay right here, I'm gonna get some clothes for you to try on," Gene called out as he walked away from the wooden door of the dressing room.

Scott leaned against the wall of the small enclosed dressing room. He blushed and looked down at his shoes that were resting on the wooden floor. _He's not upset? But why? I mean, he is gay…right? He doesn't even know I sometimes like to be a girl…this is weird. What if he doesn't like that?_ The blonde shut his eyes, ignored his thoughts, and focused on the music. _Oh, gross, OneDirection, gag me with a spoon…_

"**_Right now I'm lookin' at you and I can't believe_**," Gene sang quietly as he brought some clothes to the dressing room, "**_You don't know, you don't know you're beautiful_**! Open up, sunshine. I got clothes." Scott opened the door, looking his boyfriend in the eyes. "You like OneDirection?" he asked, taking the clothes from Gene. "Me? Oh god, no, I just like this song for some reason, and I don't know why. The band is a bunch of foreign douchebags. Hey, did you know they're not even British; they're from Wales. And I think one is from Ireland or Sweden or something. Did you see that video where that Harry guy got hit in the dick with a shoe? Actually, it's funny: whenever I hear the name OneDirection-excuse me, One_Erection_- all I imagine is a group of guys with bad teeth in a huge circlejerk and then they touch their dicks together to form one big super-penis," Gene explained. Scott stared at him before bursting out laughing. "Where do you come up with this stuff?"

Gene shrugged. Scott kissed him on the forehead and shut the door, leaving Gene to stand outside of the booth. The musician spotted a shelf on the wall of make-up and various beauty products. Walking up to it, Gene lifted up a compact case that was for display use only (at least that's what the sticker on it said) and looked it over. Inside was pastel colored eye shadow along with some blush. The man had a grin a mile wide when an idea struck him, causing him to pick up an unopened compact case and look at the other display items.

Scott peeked out of the dressing room door, weakly calling out for Gene. The musician quickly came to Scott's side with a plastic bag of make-up he had just purchased. "Uh, Gene, why do you have make-up?" the dirty blonde asked, peering into the bag. "Because I'm gonna make you look amazing," Gene said happily. "Now get back in there, I wanna see if my fashion sense saved the day once again!" He wrapped his arms around Scott's neck, kissing him softly and giggling. Scott smiled and nuzzled his lover in response.

"Hey, fags, cut that shit out."

Gene froze, then turned to look at the source of the voice. A tall man with a green Mohawk towered over another male who had dusty brown hair and skin of a light brown color.

"Dylan?" "Ryan?"

The lovers looked at each other, alarmed. "Wait, who?" they said in unison. The other men laughed a bit. "Gene, who's your new butt buddy?" the taller man sneered. The musician blushed. "Okay, first of all, we haven't even done that, so your insult backfired, and secondly, why are you here, Dylan? And who's this guy?" Gene gestured to the brunette. "Scott, you didn't tell him? He is your boyfriend, isn't he? It's not good to keep secrets, you know!" the tanned man spoke up. "He knows, Ryan, in fact I just told him today, so…" Scott said quietly, embarrassed.

"Scott, this is Dylan…we used to date, before I met you. And I'm going to guess Ryan is an ex, too?" Gene asked. Scott sighed. "Yeah, pretty much…" Ryan looked at Gene. "Did Scott tell you all about what happened in his senior year of high school, yet? Oh, it's a classic…" The dusty blonde felt his face turn fire red. "Ryan, please don't," he pleaded. "Well, you see- and I'm not sure if Scott told you this- Scott gets startled pretty easily. It was Halloween…" Ryan started his story while Scott slunk back into the dressing room and shut the door. Gene frowned and began to interrupt Ryan to save Scott from the embarrassment, but Dylan balled up a fist and raised it in a threat. The musician bit his lip as he heard Scott whimper. _Fuck, this can't be good… _he thought.

"It was Halloween, and Scott and I were with a few others at this haunted house that the high school had set up. This ghost guy was running after us and out the back door when Scott, who was at the back of the line crying like a bitch, ran right smack dab into some kids that had really, really good make up on so it looked like someone had actually torn off their face and there was blood, right? Scott got so scared, he," the man snickered, "he **SHIT** _AND_ **PISSED** HIMSELF! It was priceless, you shoulda been there." "Oh my god, seriously?! Does he have to wear those Pull Ups all the time? Or is he in diapers now?" Dylan laughed.

Hearing sniffling coming from behind the dressing room door, Gene pulled it open. He looked down at Scott, who was on the floor in a little ball. Gene had a feeling in the back of his mind that this wasn't the only thing Ryan had teased him about. Gene bent over and held out a hand for Scott, a warm smile on his face. The dusty blonde trembled a little before taking his hand and being helped up. Scott was no longer in his casual attire: he was now donned in a long sleeved light pink V-neck with lace fringe and a navy blue denim skirt. Gene blushed at the sight in front of him, and then noticed the rather long pink and white striped knee-high socks he also had on. The chocolate haired man smiled and whispered "you look adorable" in Scott's ear.

Stepping out of the dressing room, Scott avoided the gaze of the pair of exes. He felt his face heat up as he felt their judgmental stares plastered all over him. "Wow, you look like a major queer, Scott," Ryan laughed along with Dylan. Gene looked at Scott's face, which was ready to cry a river. "Fuck off," Gene said calmly while looking at the men, slipping his hand into Scott's. Ryan began to look infuriated. "What?"

"I mean, _what the fuck_, you guys are both gay and here you are, _bashing_ him for wearing girl clothes and calling him a queer? You're probably the biggest hypocrites I've ever met, and let me tell you, I've met tons. You know, since I'm a '_queer_' and all. I don't know what your deal with Scott here is, and honestly I don't give a fuck since it has to do with you. It doesn't matter, because the way you're treating him right now is **not** how he should be treated. And so the **fuck** what if he had an accident, you've had one at least once in your life, and before you tell me you didn't, bullshit. Dylan, don't think I forgot about your little accident in the car that one time. Remember when you two were little kids? Of course you don't (or you just refuse to admit it), but let me assure you, your mom or whoever it was that had the poor burden of caring for you, cleaned up your piss-stained pants for you in kindergarten because you couldn't use the bathroom like a big boy. As for the diapers thing, you can laugh all you want but someday your kids – god help them, they'll probably be mutants- are gonna be literally scraping off your shit from your ass, when you're old and gross and bitter and have to wear diapers. So if you could go play in traffic now, that'd be great, because we're gonna buy this stuff and _leave_. Go **fuck** yourselves."

The musician gave the men a smile that could have been mistaken for one that was laced with kindness and pleasant feelings. Ryan had a disgusted look on his face, and with a mighty _Harrumph! _he walked out of the store with Dylan. Gene waved to their backsides. "And don't come back, shitstains!" he said to himself quietly. Gene turned to face his boyfriend and was immediately embraced the moment their eyes met. "Thank you, Gene. Nobody – and I mean _nobody_ – has ever stood up for me like that before," Scott said softly. Gene blushed deeply and grinned before wrapping his arms tightly around the tall blonde. "You're welcome, babe," Gene whispered back. "Now let's go over to that mirror, I want to put this make-up on you."

* * *

"Tina, I'm not gonna be able to go to that movie tonight, I'm really behind on the comic and they need me to help with it, I'm sorry." _Why are we even dating?_

The glasses-donning writer looked at the concrete under her feet sadly and sighed. "Alright, Henry. Bye," Tina hung up her phone, staring at the wallpaper she chose. It was a picture of her and Henry dressed up as zombies for Halloween the previous year. She slipped her phone snug back into her jacket pocket and walked back inside.

Tammy and Zeke were leaned against a wall of the recreational area, furiously making out with each other. Tina walked up to them. "Uh, Tammy, can I talk to you? Privately?" she asked, watching them, her eyes wandering to Zeke's butt. A few moments later, Tammy had managed to tear herself from Zeke and was in front of Tina. "Sure, what's up?" Tammy put her arms akimbo and had a smile on her face.

The two girls had somehow rekindled their friendship during high school without causing any change in Tina's behavior. Tina had her limits, and Tammy had hers. Which were very few. _Junior year of high school, Tammy had become one of the popular, preppy girls along with Claire, Julie, Rupa, and Jacklyn while Tina was labeled as a nerd. Prom strolled around the corner, and the more popular girls had become annoyed with Tammy. She tried to control everything they did so it was her way. Fed up, the girls humiliated Tammy once and for all to get her to leave them alone. The prank took place at the after-prom party which was held on a cruise boat that circled around a certain section of the ocean. It involved Claire causing Tammy to "accidently" lose her balance and fall off the edge of the boat. When she was back on the boat after being rescued, the girls didn't stop there. Jacklyn ripped the front of her dress down the middle, the tear ending above her belly button. Tina had been watching everyone and their dancing butts from afar when she saw Tammy run past her, crying and holding her chest. Curious, the bespectacled girl followed after her to the bathroom, where she found Tammy crying in an open stall. Tina looked down at her own dress jacket along with the shawl she draped over it. She took off both of those things and tied the shawl around Tammy's stomach, acting as a large makeshift belt of sorts. Handing over the jacket, Tammy looked up at the girl with her make-up completely ruined from crying and being in the water. Tina simply smiled at the forlorn Tammy, who in return smiled back._

"Well, I'm starting to think Henry doesn't actually like me at all," Tina said, exhaling through her nose as an attempt to sigh. Tammy squealed. "You know what this means, don't you?" "Uh, no…?" Tina tilted her head. "We have to go to the mall to get your mind off of your craptacular boyfriend and onto a new outfit." Tammy turned her head toward Zeke, calling out that she would text him later. The man sighed, clearly annoyed, and went in the opposite direction. "There's something wrong with my outfit?" Tina looked down at her clothes as she was being pushed out the door. "Girl, you've been wearing blue since you were born. I've seen your baby pictures. It's time for a change! I'm thinking maybe red or white would look good on you," Tammy said excitedly. "Alright, we gotta take your car though. I don't drive, remember? I usually get a ride from Gene or just take the bus," Tina said as she walked alongside Tammy. "Right, right. Man, why don't you drive, Tina? You're 21, even- speaking of being 21, we should get a drink later tonight. You can walk me home or something, I don't know," Tammy started to chat. "You know I don't drink, Tammy," Tina said quietly. "Wait, maybe I can get Zeke to come! He can drive us back," the fashionista went on, ignoring Tina.

"Alright, let's roll!" Tammy said excitedly a few minutes later when the two of them were in the car. Along the way, the driver mostly blasted pop music from the radio and let the hood down, causing Tina to have to hold onto her glasses. "I love this song!" Tammy yelled over the radio before speeding up. "**_I threw your shit into a bag and pushed it down the stairs! I crashed my car into the bridge, I don't care!_**"sang Tammy as Tina was holding onto her backpack for dear life with one arm. Once they arrived at the mall, Tina and Tammy left some of their things inside the car. "Tammy, you don't need a condom for a trip to the mall," Tina said, looking at the item in her friend's hand. Tammy laughed and tossed it back into the car.

Looking around the various stores, Tammy finally settled on a clothing store that was strictly female clothing. Tina lagged behind her, not interested in being here at all. "Tammy, I want to go to the gym so I can watch fat people work out, It makes me feel better about myself," Tina whined. The blonde woman stopped and turned to face Tina. "Tina, does your brother have a girlfriend? I thought he was gay," she said, confused. "He _is_ gay. What are you talk- oh my god, Gene?" Tina's eyes widened through her thick glasses.

"Oh, uh, hey T!" Gene said uneasily, gripping Scott's hand, who was still in the outfit Gene had selected for him. "What's up?" Tina looked up at Scott. He had some make-up on and his hair was ruffled slightly. Scott smiled nervously at Gene's older sister, hoping she wouldn't figure it out. Tina's eyes squinted. "You look familiar," she said. Gene quickly put an arm around Scott's waist. "Well, we gotta-"

"Scott?" Tina asked, a smile on her face. Scott blushed and nodded. "Cute," she said happily, walking away. "C'mon, Tammy, I wanna find some of that lipstick he's got. Bye, Gene. Bye, Scott." Tammy nodded and waved to the two before excitedly joining Tina. "You actually want to look at lipstick? Oh my god, it's a Christmas miracle!" the blonde squealed. "It's not like I'm not a girl, Tammy, I still like some girly stuff. Like shopping. And yoga pants. And BravoTV. And sucking pen-" "OKAY, Tina, I think I get it," Tammy quickly said. "You think or you know?" Tina questioned her friend. "Whatever, that last one is optional anyway." Tammy laughed, "Oh, really?" The eldest Belcher daughter smiled.

* * *

"Mmm, this fruit yogurt is amazing. Tina, try some," said Tammy, shoving the cup up to Tina's face. The dark brunette put a hand in front of her face and pushed the yogurt back. Looking down at the scenery below from the second floor of the mall, Tina tried to focus on other things. Tammy frowned. "Girl, what's wrong? You're acting weird. It was a miracle that I even managed to find you new, awesome clothes that you liked." Tina looked down at the food court table. "Jocelyn is over there staring at me while talking to Jimmy Jr.," she murmured. Tammy looked in the couple's direction. "She looks kinda mad," she said. She watched as she saw Jimmy Jr. calmly walking away from Jocelyn. "I guess he's getting really tired of her bullshit?"

As if called on cue, Jocelyn walked up to their table, her curly blonde hair parted so it all rested firmly on her right shoulder. "Hey, freak. Do you think you could mind not getting my boyfriend's attention while you're in the same room as him?" Tina looked up at the girl. "What? I'm not trying to-" Jocelyn's eyebrows narrowed before she moved closer to Tina. The glasses donning girl quickly stood up so she could move out of the way, but the platinum blonde was too quick for her. Before she knew it, Tina's lower back was pushed up against the railing, Jocelyn towering over her like an angry fireball. Tina panicked and turned her head to the side only to see the people walking around on the floor, which looked a million feet below her. "Every time me and Jimmy Jr. go somewhere, you always just _happen_ to show up!" "J-Jocelyn, I'm not doing it on pur-purpose! I think I'm gonna fall-" Jocelyn grabbed Tina (who was scared shitless and frozen in fear) by the collar, slowly pushing her against the edge of the railing. "I don't know what he sees in you, Tina Belcher, but I'm not going to stand by and let you take him away from me!" The blonde looked to the side of Tina to see how far the woman under her was to falling off the edge. "And by the looks of it, you won't be anymore." Jocelyn grinned.

_Friggin' Jocelyn. It's not like I'm deliberately spending more time dancing to avoid her. These past few months dating her have been a living-_ Jimmy Jr.'s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a familiar voice yelling for help. _Tina?_ Looking up at the floor above him, he saw Tina and Jocelyn, who was just about to push the dark haired woman off the edge. The dancer on the first floor quickly ran close to the railing above. Jocelyn was just about to push Tina off when she was socked in the face by Tammy. "Bitch," she sneered at the now bleeding from the mouth lighter haired blonde. Unfortunately, the moment Tammy punched Jocelyn, she lost her grip on Tina, which was the only thing that was stopping the woman from falling to her impending doom. Tina's pupils dilated as she felt the railing on her back disappear and her body going over the edge. Tammy's eyes widened as she ran to the railing, looking at her friend, who was still falling. "Oh, shit!" she screamed.

Tina felt her eyes tear up from fear split seconds before she felt two arms catching her, the owner almost falling forward from the impact, but he managed to stay upright. Tina's eyes, which had been squeezed shut, suddenly opened. "Hey, Tina," Jimmy Jr. said, a goofy smile on his face. "Is…Is this heaven?" Tina said while looking around, surprised she hadn't splattered on the marble floor of the mall. "No, this is real life, last time I checked," Jimmy Jr. said, still holding the woman in his arms. Tina blushed. "Let me down, Superman," she said quietly. The redhead did so. "So, uh, how're you and Jocelyn?" Tina asked uneasily, as if she hadn't just been pushed off a railing by said girl.

"History," Jimmy Jr. said firmly. "…What? Really?" Tina asked, not believing what she was hearing. "Really. And that little stunt she just pulled didn't help. She always wanted to go to the clubs and crap when I had important stuff to do with my dance troupe. The last thing I want to do is go to a nightclub and watch her get wasted while hanging all over all the hot guys that graduated from Muscle-head University. I'm pretty sure she didn't even like me at all; probably just using me. Girls are weird. Well, not you, Tina. You're cool," Jimmy Jr. said. The girl smiled.

Tammy ran up behind the two. "Oh my god, Tina, are you okay?!" she said before looking all over Tina. "Yeah, I'm fine. What happened to Jocelyn?" "Oh, she ran off after I beaned her in the face. Stupid bitch. So, Tina, Jimmy Jr.," Tammy lifted her phone , which was dialing a number, "Zeke." A gruff voice let out a "what you want, woman" from the other end before Tammy continued. "Are we gonna go drinking now?" Tina let out her world famous groan in annoyance. "Tammy, I don't-" "Good! It's settled!" Tammy spoke into the phone before hanging up. "See you in fifteen. Let's go, fothermuckers," the blonde said as she grabbed the two by their wrist and dragged them away.

* * *

Tammy squealed in excitement the moment her heels hit the pavement of the nightclub's parking lot. "Hey J-Ju, now that you're single, how about we go straight to the bar? Maybe find you a babe," Zeke said, shutting his car door and walking towards the club like everyone else. "Uh, no thanks, Zeke. I'm fine for now," said Jimmy Jr. Tammy pouted and punched Zeke in the arm. "You have a girlfriend, here!" she snarled as Zeke put an arm around her. "Calm your tits, hotlips, I said find _him_ a babe, not me. 'Sides, you're all I need," he said, kissing her cheek. Tammy purred until Zeke spoke up again. "Because you can do all the housework." The blonde pushed him away and started to try to punch him in the stomach as he laughed.

Tina stayed close behind Jimmy Jr., not really wanting to go inside. But she had no choice; Tammy would bug her until she got her way. Jimmy Jr. noticed Tina was lagging behind and smiled. "I feel like such a hypocrite. I'm at a club and I just said I didn't like going here," he laughed, holding the door behind him. Tina quickly walked to his side once they entered the club. Tammy jumped a few times happily, then grabbed Zeke's hand and made a beeline for the dance floor. Jimmy Jr. waved a bit to his friend as he left. "Don't you want to dance?" Tina looked up at him. The ginger shook his head. "I like dancing, but..." he gestured to the dance floor that was filled to the brim with people grinding, "that's not dancing. That's dry humping." Tina stared at them. "Do you think someone could get swallowed up in that wave of horny dancing?" she asked. "Uh, I guess…" Jimmy Jr. said before leaving to find a table, in which Tina followed.

Jimmy Jr. stopped at the bar for a moment, getting himself a beer. Tina just got some water. "Sorry, I must look like a loser with this water," Tina said as they sat down at a rounded booth. Jimmy Jr. smiled. "No, you don't. It just means you make better choices than me," he said after taking a sip of the rather large glass. "So, how's Henry?" the redhead asked, looking over at Tina. Tina just looked down at the table in front of her sadly. "Fine." The dancer leaned over and lifted her head by her chin then sat back. "You're a terrible liar. You always have been," he laughed. Tina smiled a bit, embarrassed. "But seriously, are you guys going through the motions, or…" "He doesn't seem to even like me. All he does is work on his comic- excuse me," Tina said before imitating her boyfriend, "_Graphic novel._" Jimmy Jr. chuckled. "He's in my language arts class. I don't talk to him, but he seems pretty secluded unless he's with his two friends," he said, drinking again. The girl sighed. "I don't know if I should just let it go on, or if I should break up," she said, looking into the cup of water she had. "Break up. I'm damn glad I did."

"Did you actually tell her it's over?" Tina asked. "Oh, crap, you're right. Hang on," Jimmy Jr. said, then pulled out his phone. He pulled up a new text message and typed for a good minute. "Okay, how does this sound? 'It's over. I'm pretty sure I caught you cheating, like, five times, anyway, so. I'm leaving you because you're batshit insane. Oh, and you almost killed an incredibly weird-but-awesome cute nerd girl. Bye.' Is that too forward?" Tina burst out in laughter. "'Cute nerd girl?'" she said between giggles. Jimmy Jr. blushed. "I'm pretty sure she knows I meant you, besides the fact that she nearly killed you." "Why do you say that?" Tina looked at him. "Because she would always get mad when you were around and I was paying more attention to you than her," he said, smiling. "Oh, I should probably…send this." Jimmy Jr. quickly sent the message, then looked at the side of his phone. Tina watched as he managed to take out the sim card. The eldest Pesto son then proceeded to drop his phone into the cup of beer in front of him.

"What was that for?" the dark brunette asked. Jimmy Jr. laughed a bit. "Because I know after she reads that, she's gonna call and text me until hell freezes over." "But what about your phone?" "Eh, it's no big deal. All the important stuff is in the sim card, anyway. The only thing left on there was old pictures of me and her. Besides, my dad'll buy me a new one in a heartbeat just to get me to shut up and consider 'taking on the ownership of the restaurant.'" Jimmy Jr. explained. "You're not gonna carry on in your dad's footsteps?" "Hell no, I hate working there. Maybe Andy and Ollie could own it." He carefully took the phone out of his drink and tossed it carelessly on the table. "Your turn," the auburn haired man said after taking another helping of his beer. "What?" "Your turn. You want to break up with Henry, don't you? Your turn to break up."

Tina looked at her own phone. "But how? I mean, if I just say, 'I'm leaving you,' he probably won't care. He didn't care about missing my birthday." Jimmy Jr. frowned. "I'm not usually like this, but, does he get jealous easily?" Tina thought for a moment. "Yeah, I think so. Why?" She looked at him. The boy grinned, red tinting in his cheeks. "Can I have your phone for a moment?" Tina handed it over. Jimmy Jr. looked through her phone's main menu until he found the camera. "I don't know why, but I really want to do this. What better idea than to take a suggestive picture?" "Suggestive picture? Like por-" "No. No. Not…no." Tina blushed. "Sorry," she said quietly.

"No, what I meant was…if you send him a pic of you with another guy, he'll get mad, right?" Jimmy Jr. said before moving closer to Tina. "But who am I gonna take a picture with?" Tina asked, confused. "Me, duh," Jimmy Jr. smiled and put an arm around her shoulder. "Now, look all lovey dovey. I'm gonna take the picture." _Oh, I don't need to pretend to do that…_Tina thought, blushing. Jimmy Jr. held the phone up in front of them. The bespectacled girl gulped and mustered all her courage to put a hand on Jimmy Jr.'s chest. "Ready?" "Y-Yeah." As the redhead pressed the button on the phone, he quickly (and without thinking) leaned over and kissed Tina on the cheek, causing Tina's eyes to widen. The picture taken, Jimmy Jr. smiled and looked at it on Tina's phone. Tina peeked at it too, blushing at what she saw. "You look like you saw a ghost," the man laughed quietly, ignoring the flush in his cheeks. Tina smiled then took her phone, not moving away from Jimmy Jr.

"Alright…'I'm leaving you for him.' And insert photo. And…send," Tina said, a feeling of relief washing over her. She didn't have to worry about Henry any longer. "Are you really, um…leaving him for me?" Jimmy Jr. said, slight nervousness present in his voice. Tina looked up at him. "Oh. Um…well, may…mayb-" But before Tina could finish, a heavily drunken Tammy ran up to the table. "Tiiiiiiiina! Hey, girlfriend. Can I ask you somefin?" she slurred out. "Uh, sure?" Tina looked at her friend, slightly alarmed. She had seen Tammy drunk before, but not this bad. Tammy crawled into the booth and whispered loudly to Tina's face. "I never told you this, but I always thought you wurr sexy," she said, causing a confused Tina to back away a bit and into Jimmy Jr.'s lap. "Thanks, Tammy, but that's not a que-" Tina was cut off by Tammy's mouth on her own. Frozen, Tina sat through it, thoroughly shocked. Jimmy Jr. stared at the two, blushing brightly. "Oh, awesome! Girl on girl! Uh, I mean…Tammers, what the hell are you doing?" Zeke ran up to the booth, grabbing the drunk blonde by the arms and pulling her off of Tina. "Sorry, J-Ju, didn't mean to interrupt you and T-Ball over here," he said. "Goddammit, Tammy, how many times have I told you: you can't go running around swapping spit with random girls? (as much as I wish you could)" Zeke scolded his girlfriend, who in response simply licked his face.

"Are you okay?" Jimmy Jr. looked at the girl who was still in his lap. "Well, I'm seriously reconsidering my friendship with Tammy, but other than that, yes," she said bluntly. The redhead laughed and smiled, looking into her eyes. Tina started to lean in to kiss him until her phone started going off. The girl jumped, startled. "Oh, it's Henry. He probably wants to yell at me," Tina glared at the small screen. "Let me take care of this," Jimmy Jr. said, taking the phone from her and answering it without saying hello.

"Tina?! What the hell are you doing with that dancing scumbag? Were you cheating on me, you ugly whore?!" was all that was heard on the other end. Jimmy Jr. smirked then spoke into the phone. "Listen, asshole, I don't know what your problem is, but if I were you, I would _never_ leave Tina in the cold." Tina's eyes went wide and she started to smile. "Even if I had some big fancy dance rehearsal to go to, I'd still make it a point to talk to her. And I'll be sure to dance on your grave, you inconsiderate fuck. Hell, if I were you, I'd be planning every single day of my life to revolve around her. Also, you must need to get your already failing eyesight checked again, because I'm sitting here with the girl you called an ugly whore in my lap, and all I see is someone that's fucking gorgeous and probably the funniest and most adorable chick I know. So go shove your graphic novel up your ass and get bent, Henry." And with that, the ginger hung up the phone and gave it back to Tina, who had the biggest smile on. "I have a feeling he's never going to bug you again, Tina. Although I have to admit a lot of that couldn't have been done without beer."

The girl embraced him tightly, as giggly as a schoolgirl. Jimmy Jr. beamed and held her tight. "Thank you, Jimmy Jr.," Tina said. "No need to thank me, that guy deserved it," Jimmy Jr. smiled. Tina let go of him then took his hand. "Walk me home?" she said, looking shyly at their hands joined together. "Of course," the man kissed the top of her head.

* * *

"Alexis, what-"

"I-I'm not a psycho, okay? Drop it. I wasn't going to kill her."

The two women hadn't spoken since the night at Wonder Wharf. Alexis refused to answer Courtney's badgering all day. Courtney didn't understand. Why did she try to kill Louise? Whatever the reason, Courtney thought she had better not ask.

"…I wasn't going to ask about that. I was going to ask about something else," Courtney said quietly.

"Fine, what is it?" the redhead snarled in the dark. The two were in the same bed after Alexis spent a few nights on the living room couch. Lights out, the women were side by side in Courtney's bed.

"What happened to your sister?"

Alexis felt her heart stop for a few moments. She resisted the urge to shove Courtney off the bed just for asking about her sister. Alexis sighed.

"Okay, you **really** want to know? Well, here it is: my dad used to beat the shit out of our mom whenever he felt he needed to. When I turned 11 I got sick of hearing my mom's body hit the floor so I went up behind him before he hit her, and instead he hit me. Sent me right into the wall into a mirror. I have scars on my back from it. My mom told me to run away from home so I could survive. As I left I heard a gunshot, and to be blunt, I'm pretty sure my mom is dead because my dad shot her, and I don't even know but my sister is probably dead too. Now shut the hell up and stop asking me about this shit." Alexis turned onto her side, the tears from her eyes falling onto the pillow. A good ten minutes passed before Alexis felt Courtney's slender arms wrap around her waist and her lower back start to get a little wet. The redhead blushed and shut her eyes as the girl behind her cried.

"My mom left my dad when I was 14. See, I'd tell you I understand how you feel, but I'm not going to. Because I don't. Because I'm not you," whispered Courtney hoarsely. "All I know is how it feels to be hated. And even then it still doesn't match up to what happened to you. Before puberty I was an annoying little shit with a horrible voice. Now I'm an annoying little shit with an okay voice and a horrible wardrobe."

Alexis sighed and placed her hand on one of Courtney's.

"Hey, Alexis, do you have a Facebook?"

The redhead scoffed. "You mean that website where you can talk to all the people you only met once and think you're best friends all of a sudden? No. I don't even have a computer, dipshit."

Courtney smiled then shut her eyes, falling asleep.

* * *

The door to Gene and Logan's apartment stirred for a moment before opening. Gene stepped in with his arms full of shopping bags and looked around the dark room for a few moments. "Logan's still in his room. Coast is clear," he said as he ushered his dolled up boyfriend inside. "Thanks," Scott said quietly. Stepping inside, the very tip of the low heeled shoe on Scott's foot bumped into the carpet, causing its owner to fall forward onto the flooring. "Shit, are you okay?!" Gene dropped the bags and knelt down beside his lover. "Yeah. I just hope Logan didn't hear that. If he saw me like this, he'd probably think I'm a freak," Scott responded. Helping him up, Gene scoffed. "Oh, right, I forgot. You haven't really talked to him, like, at all. Well, he's not like that," the brunette said with pride.

"Saw you like what?"

A light flipped on, Logan standing next to the offending light switch. His hair was a mess and his eyes somewhat swollen and red. He was in just his boxers and a t-shirt. Logan's eyes darted to the figure next to Gene, who he mistook for a woman at first before realizing it was Scott. "Gene Belcher? Bringing home a _WOMAN_?" he said in mock shock. Scott blushed, Gene wrapping an arm around him. "Logan, it's Scott."

"I know, dumbass," the older blonde snapped before walking to the kitchen and grabbing a beer out of the fridge. "Logan, how many cold ones have you had in the past 78 hours?" Gene asked, almost afraid to hear the answer. "Shit, I dunno, like, 60?" Logan mumbled. Running up to the blonde, Gene smacked the beer out of Logan's hand and screamed. "That's, like, about 20 beers a day! Logan Barry Bush, if you keep drinking that much, at this rate, you're gonna die! Stop being a stupid shit!" Logan looked down at the floor at the spilled beer can, its contents leaked out all over the kitchen tile.

"Logan, what the fuck happened on Friday? When I asked you about it later that night you refused to tell me. I can't help you if I don't know what the hell is going on," Gene pleaded. Logan looked back up at the musician, who gave a sympathetic smile in return. "I won't judge you. Scott won't judge you. You might have made my sister cry and I might be a little upset about that, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to listen to what you have to say." The crossdressing dusty blonde not too far behind Gene smiled sweetly.

Logan sighed. "She asked me out. I said no."

Gene nearly thought he had gone crazy when he heard the words come out of Logan's mouth. "Seriously? And you rejected her?!" The rarely executed brotherly instincts kicked in. The heavier but shorter man grabbed Logan by the collar and yanked it forward, causing Logan to fall and hang by his shirt, looking up at Gene, who was now towering over him and balling up a fist. "Do you know how fucking depressed she is? Tina texted me that she won't even leave her room unless it's to use the bathroom. I don't even think she's eating!" Scott quickly ran over to the men and grabbed Gene's fist. "Gene, stop. I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation. I mean, from the way you describe Logan to me it makes me think he's nuts over the girl. It just doesn't add up that he said no to Louise," he said firmly, confident to end this pointless brawl. Logan smiled at Scott. Gene sighed and let him go. "Alright, so why did you say no?" he asked, aggravated.

Getting back on his feet, Logan walked over to the couch and sat down. "Alexis was there. You guys remember the last time I pissed her off, right? She'd fucking kill me, not even joking. Louise was trying to ask me out when Alexis showed up behind her, and when Louise finally asked if I'd be her boyfriend, Alexis basically silently _threatened_ me she'd slit my throat if I said yes. I know that the crazy bitch would do that, so I had to say no. I didn't want her to hurt Louise, either."

Gene looked down at his feet. "Shit…I'm sorry I almost tried to beat the shit out of you, man. I just, wow…" Scott looked back at his boyfriend before silently walking to the door and picking up the shopping bags and carrying them into Gene's room. "So, that means you really would have said yes if Alexis hadn't shown up?" Gene asked. "Are you fucking _kidding_ me? Of course I would, I- **Yes**! I would have said yes! And I'd probably do a bunch of mushy lovey dovey **bullshit** like hold her and k-"

The musician coughed. "I get it," he said, causing Logan to blush from embarrassment. "Then why don't you tell her?" "Dude, if she saw me in person this very moment she'd beat the crap out of me. I can't just stroll up to her and say, 'Oh, hi, Louise! Guess what? I've been in love with you for like almost ten fucking years!' and then she'd scream, 'Oh, boy! You liked me when I was a little girl? I have too, you sick fuck!' then she'd jump on me and we'd make-out furiously and everything would be happiness and daisies and ponies and sunshine!"

"Okay, one: don't diss the ponies. I'm pretty sure you'd like Rainbow Dash. I'm more of a Pinkie Pie person myself, but whatever, that's not the issue here. Two, ew. I didn't need to know about your deepest confessions about and wildest fantasies with my little sister. Three, want me to talk to her? She loves me, naturally. I mean, who doesn't, right?" Scott peeked his head out from Gene's room at the mention of ponies. "Are we talking about ponies now?" he asked quietly. "Scott, just- just get on my bed and look sexy or something, alright? Maybe show some skin. Or food. Or both. I'll be there in a minute," Gene turned his head to Scott, who slunk back into the room.

"Scott likes My Little Pony?" Logan asked. "I'm not really surprised, though, he seems the type…" "Yeah, he's one of those Fluttershy fanboy- **LOGAN WE'RE GETTING OFF TOPIC HERE!** Do you want me to talk to Louise or not?" Gene crossed his arms, getting impatient. "Yeah, I'd really like that. Thanks, Gene. Just…don't tell her about how I like her and stuff, okay?" Logan said. The chocolate haired man gave a thumbs up. "I'll see what I can do tomorrow. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go have a hot steamy make-out session with my boyfriend. After I call Louise, that is." And with that, Gene turned away and went to his room, shutting the door behind him.

Logan rolled his eyes. "He won't let me talk about my sex life, yet he plasters his all over the walls. Typical Gene," he sighed, picking up the remote and turning on the TV.

* * *

"**_Kono michi wo hashiri susumi susumi susumi tsuzuketa_**…"

Louise sat hunched over on her bed, an earbud in her ear and her laptop open. She quietly sang along to the foreign song, stumbling over words. "**_Furry curry ooh-two soko ni me-eteh iteh keh-shig_**…fuck, I don't speak this shit."

The angry brunette looked at her Facebook newsfeed. _Why do I even have half these people added? I don't care about your exciting times at the swinger place, Grandma. Oh, shit, I should probably block Logan, that slimy little shitstain… _Louise made her way to his profile, his profile picture of her and him being stupid together_. I can't believe I liked him…_ Her mouse pointer hovered over the 'Report/Block…' option. _Shit, I really want to block him, but…_

The girl's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the front door opening and closing and footsteps rushing up the stairs. _Tina. _Louise heard her mother greet Tina before Tina opened up the door to Louise's room. "Louise, holy crap. You'll never guess what just happened," said an overly-cheery Tina. "Jimmy Jr. is a flaming homosexual? I always knew this day would come," Louise guessed, her voice dry and dripping with sarcasm. "Even better!" The older sister made her way into the room, much to Louise' displeasure, and shut the door behind her and walked to her little sister's bed, sitting on it.

"Uh, excuse me, Kanye West. Who said you could come in here?" Louise looked up from the screen, her gaze meeting Tina's. "Me, now-" "Damn, something good really did happen. You stood up for yourself against me. You go, Glenn Coco!" Louise took out the earbud. "Anyway, me and Tammy were at the mall and Jimmy Jr.'s psycho girlfriend pushed me off the second floor and Jimmy Jr caught me," Tina explained, happy to start her story. The zombie-loving girl noticed Louise's headphones and picked an earbud up, placing it in her ear. **_Electro world jimen ga furuetekudaketa sora no taiyou ga…_** "Oh, you're listening to that Chinese stuff again. Why do they put English words in?" "Japanese," Louise corrected. "And it's probably just to show off that they know English. That's a big thing over there, at least when they're not drawing those weird big eyed cartoon girls in bikinis. Which, by the way, I find oddly attractive. "

"You mean like Sailor Moon?" Tina asked, looking at a graphic novel with a blonde in buns and pigtails on the cover that was placed beside her little sister.

"Ahaha! Of course not! That stuff is for girly girls!" Louise laughed while quickly chucking the manga across the room, getting lost in a pile of dirty laundry. "Now what's your dumb story that you probably made up as an excuse to come in here and bug me so I'll tell you what happened Friday night?"

"I didn't, though. Whatever, so he caught me and then Tammy made us go out for drinks with her and Zeke. Jimmy Jr. and I broke up with our significant others just to make each other happy again, and he stood up for me when Henry called to argue with me. What we did was send Henry a picture of me and Jimmy Jr. Look!" Tina lifted up her phone, her wallpaper now changed to the picture of the ginger kissing her on the cheek. "Then Jimmy Jr. walked me home and he kissed me for the first time in years and I still feel his lips on my own and-"

"Did you guys drink? Are you going out now?" the girl with the bunny hat asked, her attention going back to her computer. "No, you know I don't drink, Louise. And no, we aren't. Oh, and for some reason Tammy kissed me when she was drunk." Louise's ears (as well as her rabbit hat's ears) perked up immediately. "Did you kiss back?"

"No, I don't really like her that way," Tina replied. Louise went back to her Facebook newsfeed. Sure enough, there was a status update from Tammy that mostly consisted of complete nonsense. It had been sent from her mobile about thirteen minutes earlier. "Tina, are you even bi?" she pondered. The older sister looked at her. "Yeah, why?" "It's just you don't really act like it. Maybe it's just me," Louise said while looking at the lit screen.

"I am. Hey, listen…could you please tell me what happened on Friday? Why were you crying?" Tina looked at her sister, deeply worried.

Louise bit her tongue before slamming her laptop closed. "Logan doesn't want to go out with me. That's all. It's no big deal, really. I can get other guys. Hell, I bet Rudy would be all over me if that slobbering hound wasn't all over him." The younger woman grabbed the sides of her hat, pulling every which way at the strings on either side, causing her hat to eventually cover up her eyes. _Now please leave._

"You asked Logan out? Why? I thought you said you'd never go out with him, not in a million years. That's what you told me," Tina said. Louise groaned. "Tina, I told you that when I was, like, 15. It's different now. I actually…"

"You what?" Tina leaned in, waiting for Louise to say it.

Louise grumbled something. "What did you say?" Tina got excited.

"**I love him, okay?!** Shut your face! If you say anything about this to anyone I swear to god I will end you!"

"I didn't say anything. Does he know?"

"Well, technically, I didn't tell him. But he probably does since I _screamed_ at him if he wanted to be my boyfriend or not," Louise mumbled under her hat. Tina reached over and lifted Louise's hat so her face was in view once again. "Tell him," she said.

"Fuck no! He hates me! And I fucking hate him! I'm never going to talk to him _again_! He's a **douchebag**! And even if he does like me that way, I'll just say no, because **he's an asshole**!" Louise yelled, causing her mother to yell at her to quiet down from the kitchen. Louise just rolled her eyes.

"You say that now, but someday…" Tina got up and headed towards the door. "Whatever, Tina," hissed Louise. Tina turned around. "You haven't been talking to Alexis, have you?" she asked. "No, she hasn't even called or texted me in like 5 days, I think she left or something." The younger sister muttered, "_thank fucking god_," under her breath.

"Good," Tina turned back around to the door and opened it. "Louise, just promise me something?"

"I can't guarantee it, but what?" Louise asked, picking up her laptop and putting it on the floor.

"Give him another chance. I just know he likes you a lot. _Loves_ you, even. I knew it since you guys started hanging out on a daily basis. There's something not right with your story, and I just know there's something he hasn't told you. Mostly because he's afraid."

Before Louise could respond, Tina had left.

_Why did it take me so long to realize how I feel about him…?_

Louise looked out the window that she had made her dad install years back. It was right next to her bed, meaning she could sit up in bed and to the right she'd be greeted with a limited view of the world. The current owners of the business next door (_Sham-Pow! Comix_), who were also the owners of the longest lasting establishment next door to date, had removed the second floor of the building because they had no reason to live above it. Granted, all Louise could see was the roof of the comic shop, and if she tilted her head a bit she could catch a view down the road, but it was a nice view nonetheless.

The girl looked at the door to her bedroom and quickly got up, locking it. She sighed and closed the small curtains on the window. Lifting the hat from her head, Louise stepped up to her dresser, looking at the mirror conveniently placed above it_. Prom is this Friday. Shit, what am I gonna do with my hair? More importantly…_ She set down her hat and lifted up the rather long sleeve of her shirt, revealing the scars Alexis had left a week or two earlier. Louise had been applying ointment to the wound ever since, but it was still visible upon closer inspection. _I guess I'll have to put makeup on it. Gross._

Louise spotted the contents scattered across the top of the dresser. Make-up, various knick knacks, and the like. The young woman was about to turn away when the photo taped on the mirror caught her attention: it was Logan giving her a piggyback ride at the county fair. It had been taken when Louise was at the age of 14 and Logan was 17. They were in the midst of falling, but Louise looked excited nonetheless. She smiled at the "oh, shit" look on Logan's face. _Fuck, I never noticed it before until now, but he really is adorable._ Louise looked at another picture of the two of them together, this time on the swings at the park. Louise's 16 year-old self was giving Logan, who was 20 at the time, a playful smooch on the cheek. The older blonde looked absolutely disgusted, almost gagging. It had always been just a silly picture to her, but as she looked closer she realized Logan was blushing. _That's not from me, right? I mean any girl kissing you on the cheek would make you blush, right? Shit, no, not if you're a mutant. Fuck, maybe it was the fact it's me that he's blushing. God dammit, he really does like me. But then why did he say no?_

Louise's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the ringtone she had assigned to Gene, which was simply farting noises. She didn't really feel like talking to her brother about this whole fiasco just yet, so she let it go to voicemail. A few minutes of carefully addressing her wounds later, Louise heard the ding! of her phone going off informing her of a new voicemail. Louise continued to apply ointment to her shoulder until she felt it was good enough.

Picking up her phone, she unlocked the screen, being greeted by her home screen and a small icon on the top row next to the battery display. The wallpaper was of a white rabbit with red eyes and eating the flesh of a human, bloodshed everywhere. Quickly making her way to her voice mailbox, Louise put the phone up to her ear and listened to the message left for her. "Hey, Louise, it's Gene. You're gonna be working at the restaurant tomorrow, right? Yeah, uh, me and Scott-_oof_!" It sounded as if someone had lightly punched Gene in the stomach before his voice lowered. "Dude, she doesn't know yet! Shut up! …I'm gonna call you Scott because you're not dressed as a- you know what?...No! Forget it, I'm leaving a message for my friggin' sister!" Louise lifted an eyebrow, not impressed. "Heh, uh, sorry, anyway, me and my boyfriend are gonna swing by around 2. I gotta talk to you about something, well, more like tell you something. Don't worry you're not in trouble or some shit, it's just really important. Alright, see you tomorrow, bye." The click of the phone hanging up was heard from Gene's message before Louise hung up. Dammit… Louise walked over to her dresser and placed her hat back on her head.

* * *

"Baby, look, about yesterday with the whole "Scott" thing: I'm sorry. I had no idea that you wanted to be called Scotti when you're in "girl mode" or whatever," Gene said as he drove. "God, it's getting sunnier. Is it gonna be summer soon?" "Uh, well, for us it is, yes. I think Louise and the rest don't even have to go to school for the rest of the year besides graduation, right?" Scott asked. "How do you even know this?" Gene retorted as he pulled his car up in front of Bob's Burgers. "My cousin is in high school. She talks to me a lot on Facebook, so naturally I know a few things," Scott said, unbuckling his seat belt. The dusty blonde wasn't in any of his newly-acquired feminine attire; he felt he wasn't ready to go public about it just yet. The only feminine thing on him was a bracelet his cousin had made for him that had pink and yellow flowers adorning the design.

Locking up and making their way inside, the men were not one bit surprised to see Linda behind the counter with Louise. The older woman was watching her daughter like a hawk as the girl in her trademark pink bunny hat was at the cash register. "Mom, I know how to work a cash register, okay?" Teddy was there as well; nothing about him had changed much since the kids were, well, kids. It seemed like he had been trying to grow out a beard, which surprisingly worked in his favor, gaining him more of his "fuzzy little friends" on his chin and lower jaw area. "Teddy! Hey!" Gene called out excitedly. Teddy smiled. "Hey, Gene! Who's this you got here?" he asked, gesturing to Scott.

"Oh! Teddy, this is Scott. He's…uh," Gene stumbled. The family had kept Gene's sexuality a secret from Teddy, due to the fact Teddy wasn't the brightest bulb in the lamp. Linda was afraid he might get upset, and Bob just didn't want Teddy talking about it and asking questions all the time while he was working. Bob could only imagine the questions, seeing as the last time homosexuality had come up, it was about one of the higher ups at town hall that was involved in a gay sex scandal. Teddy had treated it as his opportunity to learn everything he ever wanted to about gays. Growing up when he did, Teddy didn't know much.

"He's my fri-" "I'm his boyfriend," Scott interjected cheerily, causing Gene to facepalm. Scott noticed all the stares at him. "Shit, was I not supposed to say that?" Teddy just looked at Linda confused then back at Gene. "Boyfriend?" he asked, intrigued. "Uh, yeah, well, Teddy, we haven't been completely honest with ya…you see, Gene is gay," Linda stammered on, placing a hand on Teddy's shoulder, a nervous smile on her face. "I'm fine with that. Why, did you think I wouldn't or somethin', like one of those crazy religious nuts?" he said. "O-_Oh_! Well, _good_!" Linda said before quickly changing the subject in an attempt to save herself and the others from a bombardment of questions related to homosexuality. "Hey, Teddy, what'd ya think of them Devils last night?" the mom asked, putting a hand on her hip. "Linda, you know I don't watch hockey. So, Scott, how did you meet Gene?" Linda sighed a bit before going back to the kitchen. "I need an aspirin…"

"Oh, well, it was after Gene and Logan did a gig at my uncle's pub down on 34th street. I thought Gene was pretty good at keyboard, so I went backstage and talked to him," Scott smiled, sitting down on a stool next to the contractor. Teddy pulled out a small notebook and a pen and started jotting down notes. "Um, why are you taking notes?" Scott asked, confused. "I need all the help I can get," Teddy said, causing Scott to laugh. Gene took this time to get his sister's attention.

"Louise! I gotta talk to you about something, something big and important!" Gene said as he leaned over the counter, trying to distract her from her dull task of cleaning the cash register. Louise looked up at her brother. "Well, at least now I know we're not talking about your penis," she said dryly, causing the man to blush. "You take that back! Freddy is _too_ big and important!" he hissed quietly so as not to disturb the other patrons. "Now come on, I gotta talk to you! Like, now!" **Now** now!" Louise sighed. "Fine," she said, walking around the counter and seating herself at a booth, as did Gene. "Okay, look, before you blow up at me, I know what Logan did on Friday night-"

Louise immediately got up. "Nonono! Wait! I can tell you _why_ he did it," Gene pleaded, grabbing her wrist. The girl stopped and sat back down. "You really wanna know why he did it, Louise? Well…" "_Well_? Spit it out, Michael J. Fox!" "Hey, that guy is **cool**. Don't be dissin' the Fox. He went the future, dude. Did you? _I didn't think so, sister._ Anyway, Logan said no because Alexis was there. She snuck up behind you and right after you asked Logan if he wanted to date you, Alexis was right there threatening him not to say yes. She did the whole 'throat-slitting' motion thing. Logan knew Alexis was bad news, so he said no so she wouldn't hurt you. He was doing it to protect you, Louise," Gene explained, looking at his hands that were clasped together on the table. Louise's eyes fell from Gene to the floor, her face turning red. "So _that's_ what he was looking at," she mumbled. "Huh?" Gene looked up. "He kept looking behind me like something was there. Normally, I would have turned around, but since I was basically spilling my feelings all over the ground like they were guts, I didn't think to."

"Oh, yeah, um…" Gene rubbed the back of his neck, "There's one other thing…that I'm not really supposed to tell you, but…"

"Wait, since he said no because she was there, does that mean that he would have said yes if she hadn't?" Louise started to freak out.

"Louise, I have something else to te-"

"Do you think he actually might have feelings for-" Louise's voice started to falter.

"**LOUISE**! **LOGAN IS** **MADLY IN LOVE WITH YOU**! HE'S BEEN IN **LOVE** WITH YOU SINCE YOU WERE **NINE**! HOW DID YOU **NOT** SEE THAT? I MEAN, **C'MON**! EVERY NIGHT HE'D COME HOME **BITCHING** ABOUT HIS FEELINGS FOR YOU TO ME AND I HAD TO PUT UP WITH THE FACT **MY** **BEST FRIEND** WANTED TO MAKE OUT WITH **MY LITTLE SISTER**! HE **_LOVES_** **_YOU_**, MAN!"

The restaurant went dead silent as all heads turned to Gene, who was leaned over the table and had shouted in his sister's face. The hat on Louise's hat was crooked slightly from the amount of force Gene had put into the very loud confession, her eyes hidden by the rim of the fabric. Louise grinned like the devil and fixed her hat. "**I KNEW IT!**" she yelled before getting up out of the booth and darting out of the restaurant. The musician still at the booth smiled sheepishly at Linda and Bob, whose heads were sticking out of the kitchen door and looking right at him. "H-Hey. What's up, you guys?" Gene squeaked, giving a weak wave.

Swinging open the door to their home, Louise dashed up the stairs and to her room. She leaped onto her bed and grabbed her pillow, screaming happily into it. Whipping out her phone, the elated girl sent Logan a message. As quickly as she had grabbed it, Louise tossed the phone aside and ran to her sister's room. Tina jumped as her bedroom door flew open and Louise bounded inside, her widened eyes meeting the gaze of her older sister and an obviously hungover Tammy. "**TINAGUESSWHATLOGANLOVESMEHEISACTUALLYINFUCKINGLOVE WITHMEOHHITAMMYOKAYGOTTAGOBYE**!" And with that, the girl in the pink bunny hat had vanished.

A moment of silence was had before Tina spoke up.

"What the fuck was that?"

Tammy proceeded to vomit on the floor.

* * *

Sitting on his bed with his laptop, Logan felt his phone vibrate. Pulling it out of his pocket, his face instantly brightened with a smile when he read what he had received.

**I forgive you, you stupid sack of crap. 3**


	14. Chapter 14

Linda looked down at her youngest daughter's hair as she braided it, the pink bunny hat set aside. She was doing a French braid for Louise, starting at the top of Louise's head so that the scars and stitches were concealed. "Ow. Mom, do I really have to go to this?" Louise whined. "Yes! I want you to go and have a fun time. My senior prom, oh, man. I don't- I'm not even going to bother telling you. It was…ugh," the mother grunted. Louise's hair was long enough that it went past her shoulders but ended at the top of her chest. "You know, nobody's even gonna see your hair if you wear that hat-" "Don't even –**ow!**- bother, Mom. It's coming with me. Just like all the other times. I didn't even go to prom the last three years, why do I gotta go now? Shit, that hurt!"

"Oh, quit yer whinin'. You're a big girl, one snag ain't gonna kill ya! This is what my mom used to do to our hair when we went out somewhere fancy, me n' Gayle. And that's exactly why, Louise! Tina went to all her proms, and Gene went to all'a his! He even went with Logan for two'a them! Gene and Tina liked it, so I imagine you will too!" Linda worked the hair on the young woman's head carefully around the wounds. Louise cringed. "Just because they liked it, Mom, doesn't mean I'm going to, too!""I really hope you don't get any more random scarring back here," the mother said quietly. "The last thing I need to another medical bill." Louise said nothing, flinching every so often.

"Louise, stop lookin' at your phone! I can't braid if your head is tilted," Linda said, aggravated. "Hey, Mom?" Louise put her phone down. "You know how Alexis is taking me to prom?" "Yeah, whaddabout it? Is she wearing a tux, or- I mean, what's the story here?" Linda was halfway through braiding. "Uh, no, I think she's wearing a dress. But that's not the issue here. I think I want to go to prom with someone who's not going," Louise said, looking at her phone. "Then why don't you ask him?" Linda replied. "Becau- wait, how did you know it was a he?" Louise started to turn her head then remembered her hair was being done.

"Honey, I'm your mother. I'm not blind. I know these things. Logan wasn't so hard to figure out either. I'd mention you while he was workin', and he'd reply just fine, but you could tell he was tryin' to hide the fact he was blushing. Alright, I'm all done with your hair. Who's doing your make-up? Tina?" Linda stepped away from Louise and looked at her handiwork. "Yeah, she said she was. I think." Louise got up. "Where's your dress?" Linda looked around the room from where she was standing while her daughter retrieved the dress with straps. It was a dull lime, almost jade, color, similar to the dress she had worn nonstop in her youth. The dress had a hot pink belt and a long, flowy end that met right under her knees, light pink lace on the fringe. To top it off, there was a small pink piece shaped like a bunny head attached to where the left strap met the front of the dress.

Louise's mother smiled and clasped her hands together. "Oh, it's so cuuuute!" Louise smiled a bit, slipping her hat back on. "Okay, go get Tina to do your makeup. Me and your father are gonna go get ready so we can take a bunch of pictures!" Linda escaped out the door before Louise shut it, changing into her dress. The dark brunette quickly applied concealer to her left shoulder after putting on the dress. Ten minutes later, Louise stepped out of her room barefoot. Her fingernails and toenails had been painted pink as Linda had insisted. Knocking on Tina's door, Louise let herself in, being greeted by her sister as well as Tammy. "Tammy? What are you doi-" The ears on Louise's hat twitched as she saw some make-up supplies the blonde was holding. "Oh. Oh, no. Tammy, _you're_ doing my make-up?"

"Relax, Lou. I've improved A LOT since middle school," Tammy smiled. "I sort of asked her to do the make-up because I'm not good with colors when it comes to doing make-up," Tina confessed. "I guess I have no choice, then," sighed Louise. The girl in the green dress carefully sat down on the bed while Tammy looked her over. "I'm thinkin' pink," she said before getting the make-up.

* * *

"Courtney, I think your parents abandoned you or some shit," Alexis said, lying on the other girl's bed. "It's been, like, a week since they left. I like how you're not even concerned," she said sarcastically.

"Alexis, aren't you gonna get ready for prom? I thought you were taking Louise," Courtney said as she hurried around the room. The redhead on the bed jumped up. "Crap," Alexis said, the black tips of her hair swinging around. Alexis had been slacking off on dying it lately, and since her dress was red, she thought the black would look nice in her hair with all the red. She wasn't even sure if she'd ever dye it again.

The two girls went their separate ways: Alexis found shelter in the bathroom to get ready, while Courtney remained in her room. An hour or so passed, and Alexis was on the couch, arms crossed, in her short red dress. It was basically a cocktail dress, the only dress the woman owned. Her red stilettos tapped in annoyance. "Courtney, hurry the fuck up!" Alexis yelled. Another 5 minutes went by before the Latina heard a door open. Looking up at the source, Alexis felt her heart skip a beat.

Courtney had seemed to have been completely transformed; her dress was a black strapless ball gown adorned with purple flowers at the very top with a good handful scattered on her ribcage and down to the skirt, less and less flowers showing as they rested below her waist to the hem. "Do I look okay?" Courtney asked, worried, her lips and eyelids painted in black. Alexis got up. "No," she said, dragging Courtney to the bathroom. "You need to stop hiding your face with that godawful makeup, and I swear to God, if I see those dumb hipster glasses anywhere near your face ever again, I'm going to crack them in half," Alexis grumbled as she wiped the natural blonde's face clean.

Applying light grey eye-shadow, black eyeliner, and light pink lipstick to Courtney's face, the redhead stepped back a bit. "_Now_ you look okay," she said quietly. Courtney looked in the mirror and blushed at what she saw. She did indeed look okay, more than, even. The shorter girl smiled and wrapped her arms around Alexis, resting her head on the taller woman's chest, causing the receiver of the hug to blush before wrapping her arms around her.

"C'mon, prissy, lemme put your corsage on and we'll go pick up Louise," Alexis mumbled, smiling. Courtney looked up at her and gave a firm nod.

* * *

Scott sat next to Logan, the two of them with game controllers in hand. "Goddammit, no, stand on the button and I'll give you the cube, okay?" Logan said, eyes glued to the `white and blue robot on the split screen. The dusty blonde next to him kept staring at his controller every few seconds, confused. "I don't get these controls, I'm not really a video game kind of guy," Scott said. "Scott, this is, like, the easiest game in the world. The single player mode is just a big virtual puzzle that involves portals, cubes, and a crazy bitch robot. And the two player mode is the same thing except there isn't really a story. Or a mute chick. I don't even think she ever talks." "Does she have a name?" "Yeah, but I forgot what it is. Shelly or something."

Gene walked up behind the couch, watching the TV as he tied a tie around his collar. Scott stopped playing and turned his head, taking in the sight of his boyfriend in a tux. "You look pretty good," he smiled. Gene smiled back, blushing. "Thanks. I haven't DJ'd at a prom before, but the prom is pretty much the same thing every year except with a different theme. Also, it's a pretty big banquet hall. So it's not like I don't know what I'm getting into. You gonna be okay here with Logan?" "Yeah," Scott said while focusing on the game again. The Belcher son picked up a large trunk containing all the supplies he'd need for being the prom's DJ. "I'm gonna head out, you guys. I'll probably be back around, like, 1:30 at the latest," Gene said, heading for the door.

Scott tossed his controller to Logan and jumped over the couch, getting the fellow blonde lose his focus. "Bye, Gene," Logan called out. Gene kissed Scott goodbye. "Be safe," Scott said, holding the door for him. "You sure you don't want me to help you take this down to the car?" "I'm sure. Now go play vidya with Logan. I'll see you later tonight," Gene said as he made his way to the stairs. "Bye!" Scott said loudly, waving.

* * *

A curly red head stood near the door to the banquet hall, sighing. She was _not_ getting paid enough to stand here. Gene, holding his equipment, entered through the doors as the lady turned to him. "Hello," she said dryly, "and welcome to the Huxley High School Prom: All Dogs Go To Heaven Under The Sea In Hawaii." The musician stared at the woman. "…There must have been some issues on the prom committee this year. Anyway, uh, I guess I'm the DJ for the prom tonight? I'm Gene Belcher." "The answer to a question I never asked," replied the woman, her words laced in sarcasm, giving Gene a blank stare. "Yeaaah, I'm just gonna go now," the gay man said quietly before taking his leave and walking across the empty dance floor.

About 10 minutes before the actual prom was going to start, Louise, Courtney, and Alexis came in. The woman at the door looked at Alexis then gestured toward the tables not too far away from the dance floor. "Hello, and welcome to-" the ginger started to say. "Fuck off," Alexis said as she grabbed Louise's hand and quickly dragged her to a table way in the back of the room. "Don't mind if I do," said the auburn-haired woman, walking away from her post. Courtney watched her go before looking around and spotting Gene far away, across the room.

"Gene!" she squealed, practically sprinting to the table Gene had set up his equipment on. "Fuck," the DJ said quietly then spoke up. "Uh, hey, Courtney!" The raven and violet haired 19 year-old smiled sweetly at Gene, causing him to shift uncomfortably, not from nervousness but from annoyance. "How's Scott?" she asked. "He's good. How's, uh, your…" he trailed off, realizing he had no idea if she was even dating someone. Courtney frowned. "Gene, can you play a song for me later? I wanna request something," she asked, peering at his laptop. "Yeah, sure, what is it?" Gene said while using his computer. Courtney stayed quiet for a moment, before turning her head and looking at Alexis, who was in the back of the banquet hall.

_"Alexis, what songs did she sign?" Courtney asked quietly, still clinging to the redhead. "Her favorite was Dices," Alexis said, staring at the wall. "Dices? I don't kno-" "It's the Spanish version of Who Says," the tattooed woman replied softly, on the verge of breaking down again. "The song actually has an entirely different meaning in the Spanish version; dices means 'you say'. It's someone singing about how someone she really cares about is putting them down while they keep staying strong…" Alexis turned onto her side so that she was facing Courtney. "Heh, kinda like you and me, don'tcha think?" she whispered,blushing. "Well, except for the fact you don't really care about me…" Courtney laughed "You're wrong, Alexis, because I do care" and snuggled up to her, falling asleep in Alexis's arms._

"Can you download something for me?" she asked. "Ugh, fine," Gene groaned. "What is it?" Courtney blushed before leaning over and whispering in Gene's ear. She stepped back. "But play it near the end of prom, okay?"

More than halfway through the prom, Louise realized she was actually having fun. Alexis didn't dance at all, she just stayed at their table that they had been assigned with Rudy, Jenny, and the Pesto twins. The twins would dance only with each other, which Alexis found humorous. Jenny and her blue mermaid dress stayed mostly on the dance floor, meaning Rudy was dragged along.

"Here's a song by a group of gay guys," Gene said into his headset to the prom-goers, before scrolling through his music player of choice and making a selection. "**_You're insecure, don't know what for. You're turning heads when you walk through the door…_**" Louise gagged at the song while she got drinks for herself and Courtney from the small bar built into the room. Of course, there was no alcohol, only soda and water. Bringing drinks back to the table, Louise bumped into Rudy, who was standing at the table. "Oh, hey, Rudy!" Louise smiled, looking right at him. "Hey, Louise. I'd stay and chat but if I don't go back to Jenny she'll kick my ass," the redhead said. "**_Right now I'm lookin' at you and I can't believe, you don't know you're beautiful!_**" The girl in the pink bunny ears scowled. "Why are you still with that bitch? All she does is boss you around and probably other things that I'd rather not know about," she protested. Rudy frowned for a second, looking down, as if in thought. "I just might-" "**RUDY! GET OVER HERE, YOU LITTLE SHIT!**" Rudy winced at his girlfriend's very loud request, then continued. "-do that. Thanks, Louise. I mean, I had thought about it, but now that you mention it, she really is a bitch. I guess I'll just have to break up with her after prom," he sighed. "**RUDY!**" "Alright, well, later, Louise!" Rudy said quickly before running to his future ex-girlfriend.

"That poor boy, stuck with her of all people," Louise said, setting the drinks down. Alexis said nothing, drinking the wine glass full of ice water. "I wonder why he keeps staying, though," Courtney observed, taking a sip of her soda. "Fear," said Alexis, "Courtney, why are you sitting so friggin' close to me?" Courtney blushed and moved away, not realizing how close she was to the lesbian. "S-Sorry. Hey, Alexis, why aren't you dancing?" she asked. "I only dance if by dance you mean fight," Alexis said simply.

Courtney frowned a bit before taking a large sip of her drink. Looking out the window, the woman noticed it was raining heavily. "Oh, it started to rain," she said to Louise. "Aw, man, are you friggin' serious? I am NOT getting this dress wet. I had to save up like 3 months' worth of my paycheck for this thing," Louise got up to look outside the window and sighed, staring at the garden of the facility, which was adorned with fancy benches, beautiful trees and flowers, and a water fountain. "Crap, and the prom is ending soon, too…"

Alexis looked at the table, bored. _Prom sucks… _she thought to herself. Alexis was about to get up and leave the room when she heard a melody of a guitar followed by words that she thought she'd never hear sung again. "**_Nada que temer, nada que cambiar_**… hey![Nothing to fear, nothing to change]" The red headed woman stared at the ceiling, listening to it, trying not to tear up and failing. Courtney tapped Alexis on the shoulder, who turned and looked at the smaller woman. "Did you…?" Alexis started to ask before Courtney got up and stood next to her, starting to quickly move her hands in a smooth but flowing pace, signing the words along in match to the song.

**_Por ti me olvidé_** [I forgot for you]

**_De quien yo era en realidad_** [who I really was.]

**_Contigo me quedé como un diamante sin brillar_** [With you, I was like a diamond with no shine.]

**_No quiero ser así _**[I don't wanna be that way;]

**_Espejo de tu vanidad_** [your vanity mirror.]

**_Prefiero ser de mí_** [I'd rather…be]

**_Sin nada que temer, nada que cambiar_** [with nothing to fear, nothing to change.]

Between the "na na na"'s and "**_Yo me siento así, bella y auténtica_**, [I feel this way, pretty and authentic.]" Alexis was confused but didn't want Courtney to stop signing the lyrics. Her heart was racing as she watched the signing girl.

**_No seré por ti_** [I will not be for you]

**_Una flor de metal_** [a metal flower.]

**_No, no!_**

**_Dices, que soy imperfecta_** [You say, that I'm imperfect,]

**_Que tú eres mi dueño_** [that you're my owner,]

**_Que ando de inmadura todo el tiempo_** [that I'm always…immature.]

**_Dices, que hablo cosas tontas_** [You say, that I speak dumb things,]

**_Que no te merezco_** [that I don't deserve you.]

**_¿Quien te crees que eres?_** [Who do you think you are?]

**_¿Dime quien?_** [Tell me who?]

**_Te pido por favor que no me quieras controlar_** [I ask you please that [I] don't want [you] to control me.]

**_Entrégame tu amor sin condiciones nada más_** [Give me your love without conditions, nothing more.]

**_Permíteme vivir soñando esta realidad_** [Let me live dreaming this reality.]

**_No es que soy así _**[It's not that I'm this way,]

**_Distinta y sin igual_** [different and unique.]

At this point Alexis was crying, trying to block out images of her sister while Courtney kept at it during the bridge and chorus. It didn't work. The only reason her sister would sign this song was because it reminded her of her strained and harsh relationship with their father. As the song went on, Alexis began to feel as if the words were meant for her, from Courtney.

**_Dices que soy una niña_** [You say that I'm a child,]  
**_Que me tienen consentida_** [that they have me pampered.]  
**_Dices que soy diferente _**[You say that I'm different.]  
**_Ciertamente, ciertamente_** [Certainly, certainly!]  
**_Soy lo que me gusta ser_** [I am what I like to be.]  
**_No me intentes detener_** [Don't try to stop me.]  
**_Mírame bien_** [Look at me right!]  
**_No estoy hecha de papel_** [I'm not made of paper!]  
**_Yeah!_**

**_(Dices) _**[You say,]

**_Dices, que soy imperfecta_** [you say, that I'm imperfect,]

**_Que tú eres mi dueño_** [that you're my owner,]

**_Que ando de inmadura todo el tiempo_** [that I'm always…immature.]

**_Dices, que hablo cosas tontas_** [You say, that I speak dumb things,]

**_Que no te merezco_** [that I don't deserve you.]

**_¿Quien te crees que eres?_** [Who do you think you are?]

**_¿Dime quien?_** [Tell me who?]

**_Que soy imperfecta_** [ [you say] that I'm imperfect,]

**_Que tú eres mi dueño_** [that you're my owner,]

**_Que ando de inmadura todo el tiempo_** [that I'm always…immature.]

**_Dices, que hablo cosas tontas_** [You say, that I speak dumb things,]

**_Que no te merezco_** [that I don't deserve you.]

**_¿Quien te crees que eres?_** [Who do you think you are?]

**_¿Dime quien?_** [Tell me who?]

The song finished and a new crappy pop song already playing to move the party along, Courtney blushed and sat down next to Alexis. The crying woman put her arms around Courtney, whispering, "Muchas gracias. Realmente significas mucho para mí. Te cuido mucho." Courtney blushed and smiled, whispering back, "A mi también." Alexis didn't let go, holding her close. Louise just stared at them, confused. "Why are you guys speaking taco?" _Well, at least she's happy…but I hope she doesn't hurt Courtney, oh my fucking god, I would CRUSH her…_

* * *

Logan slammed his game controller onto the floor before groaning in frustration. "I keep dying," he whined, looking at the TV. "IS IT BECAUSE I'M BLACK?!" he yelled, glaring at the small icon of the young African American woman whose life bar was crossed out in a sloppy blood red X. Scott laughed a little. "Dude, everybody knows Rochelle is the worst," he said in between giggles. "Yeah, I know, but I kind of feel bad for her. I mean nobody ever plays her, and then when they have a bot playing her she's always in the way. God, I just want to tell her 'NOBODY LIKES YOU' and then Zoey can replace her. Zoey is **hot**, man," Logan rambled. "Yeah, uh, she's really rockin' that pink zip up sweatshirt, Logan. I _totally_ understand why you think she's hot. In fact, I think I might have a crush on her too!" Scott mocked the fellow blonde. "Really? But I thought you were- wait. Oh, shut up! How do you know so much about this game, anyway?"

"You don't want to know."

"Yes, I do."

"No, you really don't."

"Just tell me, Scott!"

"Ugh, fine. I was looking at Ellis and Nick por-"

A quiet knock on the door stopped Scott from continuing his erotic tale. Logan got up and headed for the door. "Crap, if this is Jerry, I'm gonna drop kick him. He's been asking for-" The blonde looked through the peephole, surprised to see Tina on the other side. He opened the door. "Tina? What are you doing here?"

The oldest Belcher sibling looked down at the hardwood floor under her feet that coated the hallway floor. "I need to talk to you about something. About Louise. And Alexis," she said, desperately gazing at Logan, her face painted in worry. "Uh, sure? Come in," he replied, holding the door open for her. Tina walked through the doorway and onto the carpet, her balled hands clasped together, one hand on the other. Scott saw her from the corner of his eye, pausing the game. "Tina, what's wrong?" he asked, frowning.

Tina quickly turned around to Logan, who was now standing a few feet away after closing the door. "Louise told me not to tell you, but I can't hold it in any longer!" she said rather loudly. Logan lifted his hands. "Whoa, whoa, slow dow-" "**AlexisisabusingLouiseandhasbeensincetheystarteddat ing! InoticedAlexishasn'tbeenaroundasmuchthisweeksoI'mw orriedthatshe'sgoingtodosomethingtohertonightatpro m!**" Tina blurted out, her words scrambling together. Logan felt his heart stop for a few seconds. "**Fuck**, I fucking **knew it**! Scott, stay here with Tina; I'm gonna go get Louise!" The platinum blonde snatched his jacket off the standalone coat hanger and rushed out the door and down the stairs, pulling out his car keys.

"Wait, so, Alexis beats up Louise?" Scott spoke up, staring at the sister. Tina quickly sat next to Scott on the couch, holding her head, shaking. "Yes," she mumbled. "I came home one night a week or two ago and found Louise in my room, looking for make-up to cover up the bruises. I made her sit down and I had to clean out all the cuts and give her my make-up that I barely use…Alexis sounds like such a psycho, she _looks_ like a psycho! I'm so worried, what if she hurts Louise again? Or _worse…_" Tina started to break down and cry. Scott hugged her tightly, sighing, worried about the whole situation at hand.

Logan looked around the parking lot for the car before realizing Gene had taken it. "Oh Goddammit!" He began to looking around, trying to remember where the banquet hall was. Sprinting down the sidewalk, Logan hoped it wasn't too late.

* * *

"One last request for the night before we have to say goodbye," Gene spoke into his headpiece, finding a song and pressing enter, causing it to begin to play. Louise watched some people already starting to leave. The employees of the facility weren't allowed to let the prom attendees go just yet, causing a small but growing crowd in the lobby.

**_She's to die for, a little murder on the dance floor calls her name,_**

**_A little further to his heart she holds the flame_**

**_She is still so unsure, she always leaves him wanting more_**

**_You let me down, I can't let this go now (time to turn it round again)_**

Alexis's eyes narrowed, her more violent instincts kicking in_. I need to get this plan in motion before Courtney can stop me._ Getting up out of her chair and roughly grabbing Louise's wrist, she hissed, "We're leaving." Louise looked around frantically for Courtney, but she was nowhere to be found. "But, what about-"

**_She is dressed to kill_**

**_And he is to die for_**

**_She knows he would kill just to hold her on the dance floor_**

**_So do we dare to take this dance_**

**_Well I'm willing to take the chance_**

**_And tonight could be the night baby_**

**_Just take my hand, I swear we'll make it right_**

Logan rushed up to the banquet hall, feeling like he was going to pass out. He tugged at the doors. Locked. _But I hear music, so how…?_ The blonde was about to look for another way in when the doors swung open, causing him to back up and almost fall. Making his way through the ocean of dressed up teens, Logan looked around then spotted Louise being dragged by Alexis across the lobby.

**_And he's to die for_**

**_A little heartache in the shape of a girl_**

**_His little heart shaped box just waiting to be filled_**

**_'Cause she knows what she came for, she always leaves him wanting more_**

**_You let me down, I can't let this go now (time to turn it round again)_**

"Louise!" Logan yelled, plowing through people who were going in a completely different direction. "Louise!" he yelled once more, causing the girl to lift her head, and recognizing Logan coming towards her, halfway through the students leaving the building. "Logan!" she screamed, looking scared. "Oh Jesus fucking Christ, not this fuckface again!" Alexis jeered, trying to get out the doors but with the amount of people pushing past her she was forced to wait a few moments.

**_But she's too caught up in moves_**

**_The moonlight plays so soft on her skin_**

**_And she's singing, he's sinking- it's the sweetest sin_**

**_Oh the state that she has got him in_**

**_But she, she's too_**

**_Caught up in moves to even notice you_**

**_Well she's singing, she's swinging her hips_**

**_He keeps saying and praying_**

**_That one day he will know her lips_**

"Hey, Joey, can you watch my stuff?" Gene asked to his fellow bandmate, who agreed in response. Along the way to the bathroom, Courtney grabbed Gene by his wrist and started to panic. "Gene, I can't find Alexis or Louise anywhere and I'm worried she hurt Louise!" she yelled. "I saw Logan just now in the lobby, come on!" Gene didn't even have time to respond as he was whisked away to the lobby.

**_She is dressed to kill_**

**_And he is to die for_**

**_She knows he would kill just to hold her on the dance floor_**

**_So do we dare to take this dance_**

**_Well I'm willing to take the chance_**

**_And tonight could be the night baby_**

**_Just take my hand, I swear we'll make it right_**

"Louise, I need to tell you something!" Logan called out as he made his way to her, reaching his hand out. Gene and Courtney weren't too far behind Logan, who had no idea they were behind him in the first place. "What is it?" Louise shouted, trying to fight her way out of Alexis's grip, but it was no use.

**_I swear we'll make it right_**

"Oh for shit's sake!" Alexis screamed, shoving people aside, a few falling on the floor and getting trampled by tacky shined shoes and high heels. "Alexis was the one who knifed me, not some hobo!" The redhead's ears perked up while the owner ripped off a girl's heavy necklace with very large and what seemed to be stone pearls, just barely missing Logan when she threw it. "Just leave me alone!" Alexis screamed. "Wait, Louise, I have one more thing I gotta tell you!"

**_I swear we'll make it_**

Logan blushed as Louise was looking into his eyes even from a few feet away. He followed the girl, who was being dragged away. Before he knew it he heard his own voice let out words he never thought he'd say to the girl he had wanted for so long.

"Louise, I'm in love with you!" he shouted over the chatter of the crowd, his face still red.

"**You fucking idiot!**" Louise laughed, causing Logan to feel his heart drop. _Rejection? But why would she-_

"You have **no idea** how long I've waited for you to say that, Logan!" she gave a signature grin, her cheeks flaring up. Logan felt his heart skip a beat as he smiled back then felt his body being pulled back.

"Logan! Why are you here? Forget it, don't answer that; where the hell is my sister?" Gene screamed, showing signs that he was about to have a meltdown. "And that crazy lesbian bitch?"

"You idiot, I'm trying to get-" Logan stopped talking once he looked back in Louise's direction, but she was long gone. "Shit, she got away! See, Gene?! I was going to-"

"Stop fighting!" screamed Courtney, who grabbed both of the men by the arm and exited the building as soon as possible. "Fuck, her car is gone," Courtney cursed. "Well, where do you think she went?" Gene asked. Logan was about to speak up until his mind flashed back to weeks earlier.

"I know where she went. C'mon, get in the car," Logan said as he pulled out his phone, looking for directions. "If my sister is dead, I swear to god I will pummel you into the fucking ground!" Gene growled, causing Courtney to cover his mouth with her hand. "Shut up, let's go," she said in aggravation.

* * *

Ripping off Louise's blindfold, Alexis looked down at her girlfriend, who was tied to the chair, ankles tied to the legs. "Hello, Louise," the lesbian sneered while taking the rag out of Louise's mouth that had been used to silence the infuriated girl in the pink bunny hat. "**Fuck you!**" Louise screamed, spitting at Alexis. "Why are you **so fucking crazy**?" "Hang on, dear. I need to ask you something. Cute dress, by the way," Alexis walked to the wall covered in photographs of her various human playthings. She picked up a printed-on piece of paper and strolled back to Louise. "Are…are you going to-?" "No, I'm not _that_ kind of psycho. Of course, you're of age so it wouldn't really be molestation, would it? Whatever, I'm not interested in your body. If I want to see naked girls I can just go take a walk to where all the teeny-boppers hang out. This one girl, oh my god, the shorts she had on weren't even shorts, they looked like denim underwear. And she was, like, 13. Fucking ridiculous. Anyway…"

"I think I might go for this look. What do you think?" Alexis asked, lifting the paper in front of Louise, her other hand on her hip. "Think I can pull it off, sugarlips?" On the paper was a photo of a red-haired woman with fangs and teal eyes. She was dressed in some sort of black and red outfit that included a corset of sorts. Adorning her arms were two long arm blades that attached at the wrist, one for each arm.

"You want to look like a slut? Well, _good news_! **You already do**!" Louise yelled. Alexis grunted before tossing the picture to the ground. "But you're my girlfriend, you have to say I'm pretty! Also, I see you've never played BloodRayne, then," she said under her breath. "We aren't dating anymore, Alexis!Blood what?" "Shut up, it doesn't even matter to me what your opinion is since in less than half an hour you're going to cease to exist," Alexis smiled. Louise's eyes widened, her forehead starting to sweat. "What?"

Alexis picked up a knife that had been on the dented and dirty coffee table in front of the couch. "You heard me. I've never done a kill before, though, so I'm excited," Alexis said before licking the knife's blade, nicking her tongue a bit. "How the fuck are you not in jail?" Louise cried, feeling her eyes well up with tears. _I can't believe I fucking fell for this. I actually sort of really liked her before I found out she was insane. _"Most of the abuse pictures on that wall is from before I was 18. All the girls did was put restraining orders on me. Too bad you didn't do that, it might have saved your life, sweetheart. Such a shame too, you're adorable. Now, I have a burning question, Louise."

The girl in the hat lowered her head and shut her eyes, feeling the tears roll down her cheeks. "Wh-what?" her voice croaked as she tried not to cry any harder. "Well, I wanna know," Alexis said as she walked up to the crying girl, "why you don't take off your hat." The redhead reached forward to take it off by the ears, but before she could, Louise backed her head away and bit Alexis's arm. "Oh, you little shit!" Alexis screamed before slapping Louise across the face. "Now sit still. I'm going to see what your little secret under that hat is," Alexis grinned devilishly, grabbing the ears of the hat.

But before Alexis could lift up the hat, her apartment door made several thud noises before it broke open; Gene and Logan had knocked it down by force while Courtney stood behind them. "What the fuck?! How the fuck did they know where we were?" Louise lifted her head, her eyes brightening as she screamed Logan's name.

"Does it really matter, Alexis? Why the fuck are you doing this to her?" Logan yelled. The younger woman screeched, tears in her eyes. She lifted up her knife, lunging at the blonde. Gene quickly got out of the way, falling onto the floor near the wall of photos. Logan dodged it just in time; the sleeve of his shirt, however, did not, and as a result was cut into.

Looking up at the wall, Gene felt his eyes go wide in terror. "Uh, Courtney, look at this…" Said girl hurried over to help her former crush up from the floor, but felt her stomach squirm looking at the photos of various beaten and tied up women.

Grabbing Alexis's wrist with the knife in it, Logan struggled as he pushed it away from him. The woman was incredibly strong and quite frankly it scared Logan. "Alexis, what the fuck is your problem with Louise? It's like every time," he knocked the knife, "I show up, you magnify the batshit insane level to 110%!"

Alexis backed up, weaponless. "You really want to know?" She looked at her knife on the floor and picked it up, pointing it at Logan. "It's your entire fucking fault, Logan Barry Bush! You are the reason I went batshit insane!" Alexis screamed, tears flowing down her face. Helping up Gene, Courtney watched, frozen where she stood. Logan looked at her confused, still backed up against the wall. "What the hell are you talking about? I don't even know you!"

"That's where you're wrong, Logan! Allie Alvarez, 5th grade. You were in 7th. I had just shown up at Wagstaff after transferring in from my old school because of my poor grades. I was on the playground, just minding my _own fucking business,_ when you fucking _showed up_ and took a **shit** on my life!"

Logan's eyes narrowed, peering at the half Hispanic half German. A young girl's face appeared in place of Alexis's as he thought back to his junior high days.

_A blonde dribbled a basketball on the black pavement, his friends surrounding him for the game. Passing it to another boy, the blonde's eye caught on a little girl watching them play. He didn't recognize this kid. Ever since his mother had become more agitated and fed up with his father for reasons he didn't know, the boy had found he developed a mean streak to build up over his confusion and pain over his parents feuding. This meant the start of a long schoolyard bullying phase that would continue on until junior year of high school._

_Stopping the game, the tall boy walked over to the little girl. She had black hair, brown eyes, and the face of an innocent harmless child who was just trying to ignore the past and make a new life for herself as she left her birth family behind. Her clothes were nothing fancy; obviously things bought from the Goodwill. "Hey, kid, stop staring at me. It's creepy. Go play dolls or something," the blonde sneered. The little girl looked at him sadly, not saying anything. "Why don't you talk, huh?" the boy asked, shoving the girl back lightly, making her fall backwards onto the ground. The blonde laughed and walked away._

_It didn't stop there. The girl kept coming back every recess, just watching him. Around the third time she had shown up, he finally asked for her name. "Alejandra- I mean, Allie Alvarez," the girl said quietly. "Yeah? Well, that's a really crappy name. Mine's Logan. Logan Barry Bush," Logan spoke up. "Logan Barry Bush?" she asked softly. "They didn't think it through. Whatever, this isn't about my name, this is about you coming around and bugging me every day. Do you have a crush on me or something?"_

_Allie frowned, almost looking disgusted. "No. I want to be a mommy with another girl. That seems fun." Logan stared, not quite understanding that the little girl was basically saying she wanted to marry a girl. "Uh, alright…anyway, bug off, you freak me out. And you're pretty ugly, too," Logan laughed. Allie looked down sadly as Logan walked away._

_The following months consisted mostly of Logan doing poorly in school while bullying Allie at the same time. On numerous occasions, the blonde had gone so far as to not just verbally harass her, but physically as well. Pushing her down the slide and sending her right into the dirt, stealing her things, making her trip on cement, pouring a bucket of toilet water from the boys' room onto her, and worse. She didn't stop him from doing any of these things, or try to fight back. He didn't understand._

_The first day of 8__th__ grade, Logan waited and waited during recess the next three days for Allie so he could bully her, but she was gone. And that was the last time he ever saw Allie Alvarez._

Or so he thought.

"Oh…oh my fucking god. Alejandra Alvarez?" Logan's eyes enlarged as the memories came flooding back to him. "I thought you moved away or some shit!"

Alexis become even more enraged, on the brink of harming someone without thinking. "No, you dumbass, I went to a different school because of you! Because you _endlessly_ **tortured** me! You're asking me what my fucking problem is; the real question is what the fuck YOUR problem is! I had to change my name because otherwise my psychotic father might be looking for me and track me down and kill me, just like he killed my mom and my sister! I'm not even a fucking real redhead! And these eyes? Contacts." Alexis ripped a contact out of her eye: one eye blue, the other as brown as chocolate. "You don't know how friggin' lucky you are, Logan! I came back to this town just so I could start a new life for myself. I was trying to change myself; I had thought I didn't want to hurt other women anymore, but no. The moment I saw your smug little face at Louise's dad's burger joint, I knew I wasn't done yet. And once I learned you two had a connection, I just knew I had to ruin your life, just like you ruined mine, you **_shitstain_**! You of all people don't deserve love, even if that means committing murder! I won't mind much when I get to prison, since I'm sure it'll be a lot better than my life right now! You can come and visit me every day, Logan, and cuss me out because I killed the only girl that gave a shit about you. You can piss on my grave, but the joke's on you! I'll see you in hell! Maybe even sooner than you think, maybe I should just-" She lifted the knife to hover in front of her chest, and before the knife could make impact, she had been tackled to the ground by Courtney.

"Don't even fucking think about it, Alexis! That's not what your sister or mom would want! What makes you think they'd be proud of the way you're acting right now?" the purple haired woman screamed, grabbing the knife away and whipping it behind her. The tip of the blade became lodged into the wall next to Logan, wobbling a bit. "Will you people stop trying to kill me with this fucking knife?!" Logan said, ripping the knife out of the wall and running to Louise, who was trembling as this all unfolded. "I never said I thought that, you emo hipster wannabe!" Alexis yelled right back, pushing Courtney off and standing up with more tears in her eyes.

"I'm gonna get you outta here, Louise," the blonde said softly to her. Louise was so shaken that she went unconscious, going limp in the chair. Gene ran over after getting up and shook her by the shoulders. "Louise! Louise?!" "She'll be okay, Gene, relax!" Logan shouted as he quickly cut the ropes binding Louise to the chair. Alexis began to turn to walk over to the boys to stop them until she felt a pair of arms wrapped around her stomach and a quiet voice beginning to sing.

"**_Who says you're not perfect? Who says you're not worth it? Who says you're the only one that's hurting?_**" Courtney sang quietly, causing Alexis to flip through flashbacks of various points in her life, mostly including her sister and being bullied. She began to cry harder. Courtney gently hugged her from the front, cooing to her. Alexis looked down at Courtney, blushing and smiling, wiping away tears and hugging her back. "Courtney, you're the only one who hasn't given up on me...Why?" Alexis whispered. Courtney blushed and looked away, muttering, "Because I think I might be in l-"

Alexis went flying across the floor, going out like a light. Courtney turned and glared at Logan, who put his fist down, smiling sheepishly. "What the hell was that for?!" Courtney asked, running to the unconscious lesbian and propping her up a bit, holding her. "Well, I figured there was no way we could get out of here unless she died or passed out. And I'm not ready to go to jail, so I punched her," Logan explained, picking up Louise bridal style. "Anyway, We're gonna take Louise to our place until she wakes up again," he said. Hearing sirens, Gene's ears perked up then he grabbed Logan by the arm. "Dude, we gotta go! They're gonna think we beat them or some shit!" "Gotta run, bye!" Logan said, him and Gene sprinting out the door with Louise in their possession.

_Somebody heard the screaming and called the cops… _Courtney thought, looking down at Alexis. Although unconscious, Alexis looked somewhat pretty in a state like this. _Not that she wasn't pretty to begin with, but…_ The other woman smiled, pushing some of the dyed hair on Alexis's head out of her face.

_"Why do you wear those dumb glasses? They cover up your face. It's not like you're ugly or something."_

_"Courtney, just dye your hair back to blonde. You look ridiculous with this hair."_

_"Stop trying to being something you're not, holy shit."_

Courtney frowned a bit, still looking at Alexis. _Maybe she's right. She was right all along…_

Leaning down, the younger woman kissed Alexis on the mouth before sitting back up and holding her, waiting for the police. Courtney took another look at the woman in her arms, speaking up as if she really was conscious once more.

"You're not going to be alone anymore, Alexis. I **promise**."

* * *

Louise stirred slightly. _Why does my head hurt? And where…?_ She opened her eyes, only to see the ceiling of a familiar apartment. "What the fuck…?" Louise murmured, putting a hand on her head. Sitting up in the dark room, she looked around and was able to make out some bacitracin and various first aid supplies sitting on what she assumed was a coffee table. It was too dark to tell where she was or what her surroundings were. "L-Logan..?" Louise called out, scared that she somehow was in yet another apartment of a psycho.

The door to Logan's room opened, the blonde slipping out of said room and shutting the door. "Louise, you're awake?" Logan walked over and turned on the kitchen light. "What the hell happened?" Louise asked, looking at her left arm and seeing that the make-up had been wiped off. "D-Did you do this? **Did you see-**" "Relax. I understand. I know that she abused you. Tina showed up while you were at prom and told me about it," Logan said, sitting on the couch next to her. "Ugh, I knew I couldn't trust her," the girl sighed.

"Actually, I'm kind of glad she told me. I had been thinking for a while that maybe Alexis abused you but I wasn't really sure. And with Alexis finding out that I-" He stopped, blushing. Louise looked at him, confused, before blushing as well. _Love me?_ She wanted to whisper, but felt it was a bad idea. Logan took a deep breath before continuing, his head faced forward but his eyes flickering back to the dolled up girl in the bunny hat. "That we were friends, she probably would have hurt you even more if I found out that she really was abusing you. I, um…the night you asked me out, Alexis was behind you, and I knew if I had said yes, that'd be the end of you and me. Literally. And I really don't want to think about dying before I had the chance to ask you." He placed his hand on Louise's, his palm pressed up against hers as he laced their fingers. "A-Ask me? Ask me what?" Louise looked at him, trying to keep a straight face and failing miserably, her cheeks bright red.

"Louise, will you go out with me?" Logan asked quietly, smiling a bit. He blushed when Louise's face seemed to brighten entirely, the biggest smile he had ever seen on her face. "I don't know, Logan. I don't associate with Canadians…" Louise joked. "Oh, please, I'm only, like, 47% Canadian." "Even worse!" Louise cackled, tackling Logan on the couch. The two laughed for a moment, on top of each other, until they went silent and Louise quickly got off of him. "S-Sor-"

In the middle of her apology, Logan had grabbed Louise by the shoulders and kissed her. Blushing, Louise began to kiss back. Moments later, the two had parted and were looking into each other's eyes. "So is that a yes? I like your hair, by the way," Logan smirked. The bunny hat on Louise's head was lifted by Logan. "Logan!" Louise snatched her hat back. "Louise, Gene and Scott are passed out on Gene's bed," Logan protested, gesturing to the open door of Gene's room. The musician's bed was, indeed, taken by his boyfriend and himself snuggling. "Oh, gross, get a room. A better one I mean," the dark brunette said as she saw them from the couch.

Logan rolled his eyes and shifted himself so he was lying on the couch. Of course, he brought Louise along with, placing her on top of him. Louise rested her head on the man's chest, shutting her eyes. The blonde looked at her hair, the braid covering most of the scarring. "Louise, I know you don't like what's back here, but even if you had moldy scabs on the back of your head, I'd still think you're gorgeous," he whispered while untying her hair and loosening it so her hair was down. "You know there's probably medication or creams for this stuff, right? I mean, I don't know, but probably." "I'm not putting random chemicals in-" Louise began to protest but stopped herself when she felt his hands toying with her hair. "Logan?"

"Hm?" Logan lifted an eyebrow, looking down at the girl he had wanted to hold for so long. Louise smiled, looking back then moving up and kissing him softly. "I love you, Logan," she said quietly. _It feels weird to say that but somehow it feels right…_

"I love you, too, Louise," Logan kissed the back of her head. "Now let's sleep, I'm exhausted from being a superhero and saving the damsel in distress," he laughed. Louise punched him in the arm before shutting her eyes once more and falling asleep.


	15. Chapter 15

Alexis opened her eyes to bright sunlight coming from the window, a dark figure outlined next to her. A closer look would reveal it was Courtney sitting in her prom dress from last night on a somewhat battered hospital chair. The younger woman was asleep, a peaceful look on her face. Alexis smiled a bit before remembering why she was here. She looked at the clock; 5:47 AM. Sitting up in the hospital bed, Alexis realized she had been knocked out for a few hours. Her face felt sore and bruised as she ran a hand over it. Feeling lonely already, Alexis leaned over and tugged on Courtney's arm. "Courtney!" she hissed quietly. "Wake up!"

The blonde woke up, somewhat startled. "Wha-…oh! H-Hey Alexis," Courtney said, smiling. "Uh…do you remember what happened last night?" Alexis shrugged. "Sort of. Recap me?" "Logan knocked you out when I was going to tell you something, that's pretty much all that matters. Well, the other stuff matters too, but I have a feeling you already know that," Courtney yawned, slipping off her sparkly high heels and climbing into the hospital bed, clinging to the current occupant of said bed. Alexis whispered, "I know I'm psycho, but…" Before she could finish, Courtney lifted her head and kissed her. Alexis kissed back, finally figuring out how she really felt about her.

* * *

"Wake up, lovebirds!" Gene sang loudly as he walked out of his room and into the living room, picking up Louise's hat and placing it on her head before Scott came in. Louise groaned and rolled off of Logan, landing on the floor. "Nice trick, now do a 180," Gene said to his sister. Logan woke up at the sound of Louise thumping onto the floor. He looked down at the carpeted floor at his girlfriend, who was face down. "Why were you guys sleeping on each other?" Gene asked, going to the fridge to get out the gallon of milk. Logan blushed while the girl clad in the pink bunny hat lifted herself up off the floor.

"Why are **_you_** sleeping on **_Scott_**, Gene?" Louise retorted, rubbed her face.

"Because we're dati- oh. Oh. _OH_. WAIT, WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN?" Gene spoke then gradually screamed, waking up his boyfriend. Scott came out from the bedroom moments later, make-up smeared all over his face. "Oh, yeah, I forgot to wash that off," Gene laughed nervously. "Sorry about that, hun," he said, kissing the cheek covered with smudged eye-shadow and blush.

"I hate to ruin the moment," Logan said as he sat up, "but what the hell are we gonna do about our performance for graduation? I didn't think of anything good to cover." "Graduation?" Louise stood up, brushing off the skirt of her dress. "I didn't know you guys were doing a gig at graduation. Since when was this?" Logan laughed a bit. "We asked in, like, February. They said yes. But the problem is just me singing all by myself is getting old. We need something else, maybe a new member or something? Like a co-vocalist? I don't know anyone that could be that for us, though."

Scott was at the kitchen, washing the make-up off his face with a paper towel as he listened to the dilemma. At first he wasn't sure if he should speak up, but then made the ultimate decision it would save the band's ass. He turned to them, make-up free.

"Um, hey guys, uh…you know…I can kind of…" Scott trailed off. Gene looked at him, confused. "…rap." Logan smiled, getting up and putting his hands on Scott's shoulders. "Great! What does it sound like?" Scott coughed a bit before clearing his throat.

"**_Did you ever, did you ever, did you ever get the feeling that you were all alone? And no one ever knew you and you never had a home? And the lights and the colors do their best to distract you? Fuck you, I don't even know why I like you! It's all a blur, it's all a blur…it's all a blur, it's all a blur like a picture, it's all a blur!_**" Logan cut in, because it just so happened he knew what song Scott was doing. "**_You don't know what you're missing, you don't know what you're missin'- I've been trying so hard just to keep away, and now look where I am standing at today: trying so hard to walk away. But it's impossible to watch you fade away, to watch you fade away._**" Scott smiled nervously at Logan before being ushered to go on. "**_Did you ever, did you ever, did you ever stop believing after all was said and done? When you turned to your friends but they were long gone? And the sky and the snapshots re-re-remind you I trust you and I'm always gonna miss you. It's all a blur, it's all a blur. Bring it back, I said it's all a blur, it's all a blur like a picture. Reminds me who you were!_**" Scott was a little flush in the face, taking a deep breath in between his quiet panting. "Sorry, I don't rap as much as I used to."

Gene clapped, grinning. He was obviously pleased with the short performance. "That was pretty good for a tall, skinny white boy!" he said. Scott smiled in response. "Thanks…but honestly I really don't-" "Scott, you are now officially a member of 12OON." Logan patted him on the back. Scott blinked, confused. "Twelve-noon?" "Well, that's how it's pronounced, but it's spelled like with a number 12 then "oon" in all caps after…I don't know, I saw it when I was driving. I think it actually means twelve thousand miles north? Whatever, I liked it." Logan shrugged.

"So I see you like Zebrahead," Logan said to Scott, who nodded. "Yeah, I guess I do," Scott laughed. A loud **_AHEM!_** was made from behind Logan. Louise was slightly annoyed. "Logan, I gotta get back to the restaurant; my phone is in my purse which is back at Alexis's apartment, and I'm sure my mom is going apeshit since I'm still not home. I wouldn't be surprised if she called Gene a million times." Rolling his eyes, Logan put an arm around Louise's shoulder, leading her out the door. "We'll be back…eventually," he said as he walked out the now open door and down the hallway. Gene quickly ran to the doorframe, sticking his head out and watching the two leave. "And we'll be here…probably."

Scott yawned and went to the fridge. "Hey, Gene, we should go somewhere this summer. Like a cabin, maybe," the blonde called from in front of the open fridge. Gene shut the door and walked into his room then back to Scott, phone in one hand. "Louise, Tina, and my mom were planning something a while back I think? I don't really know, but Louise said it's going to be pretty big. Like my testicles!" Gene looked at his phone, fiddling around with the keyboard. 114 missed calls, all from his mother. 17 texts, also from his mother. "Can't argue with that," Scott said, who was making a bowl of cereal. The musician laughed and hugged his lover from the side. "I'll talk to them if they don't bring it up first," he whispered, stealing the bowl of cereal and walking away. "Hey!" Scott tackled him, causing the bowl to fall onto the carpet, cereal and milk spilling everywhere. "Dammit, Scott, now you gotta wash that up with your shirt," Gene said suggestively, waggling his eyebrows. "Deal," Scott chuckled while he slipped off his shirt.

* * *

A few days passed, and at this point Alexis wasn't even sure why she was still in the hospital. The doctors had seemed to figure out the entire situation at hand, while the police gathered her back story, causing them to generate a great deal of concern for Alexis and the people around her. Alexis had undergone intensive therapy, therapy that she had needed for a long time. Courtney had stopped by once to tell Alexis that she would be there when Alexis was released to help her back to her house. The apartment itself was under complete police and detective surveillance, every single thing either terminated or saved for evidence in case of a future crime record for the redhead. The only other time she had ever been involved with the law was for smuggling and dealing marijuana at age 17.

The day of Alexis's release, the woman was still in the hospital bed, bitter as ever. She wanted to get out of this stainless steel cage. The nurses refused to let her get out of bed and dress into her normal clothes until someone would come to accompany her. Courtney had taken the liberty of bringing clothes that she "was sure Alexis will enjoy." The time finally came once Alexis saw the doorknob turn and in walked-

The woman walking into the room was not the Courtney that Alexis saw last. The tattooed woman almost didn't recognize her. Courtney's hair was no longer black and purple, but a blonde similar to the hair color she was born with. There were a few extensions in her hair to make the head of hair appear longer than it actually was. She was wearing a lavender top and brown shorts with pink flip-flops. Her naturally ocean blue eyes seemed to brighten up her- surprisingly- make-up free face. Courtney looked like she was glowing, a smile as wide as possible. "Alexis!" she squeaked before running to the bed-ridden woman's side. "Is this how you look without all that gunk on your pretty face, sweet pea?" Alexis smiled, grabbing Courtney's hand, which had purple nail polish on it.

"This is as close to the 'old me' as you're gonna get. But, the real reason I did this was because you were right. I wasn't really happy not being myself. The only reason I started dressing that way was because Louise teased me that the reason all the hot, tough guys that I had a crush on wouldn't ask me out was because I wasn't their type. Then, of course, I become their type and they completely avoid me. So I just gave up and stayed as an 'emo hipster wannabe' like you said." Courtney looked down at her feet. "Honestly, I hated all the looks I got for dressing like that, but I figured nobody would want me since not a lot of guys were 19 at Huxley. Thanks for helping me find who I really am…" The blonde leaned down and kissed Alexis on the cheek, blushing. "I'm not sure if I'm gay or straight or what, but all I know is that I really like you. And I was hoping that since I changed back to who I really am, maybe you should too…" Courtney picked up the set of clothes she had brought earlier that week and brought them to the bedside. Alexis didn't actually get a good look at them until now.

It was a corset-like strapless jade top that was beaded with turquoise and beige beads down the middle, in two lines, respectively. The pants were white shorts with a simple black belt. It all seemed like something she would never be caught dead wearing, but for some reason it reminded Alexis of her sister and mother. "I was thinking about not dying my hair anymore, to be completely honest. I didn't tell you because I just didn't think you cared. I'm probably gonna throw my blue contacts away, actually," Alexis went on as she managed to remove the blue discs from her eyes.

Courtney smiled, bouncing a little. "You look like you're hiding something. What're you up to, Courtney?" Alexis asked, suspicious. "Oh! Well, that's because I am! Remember when I asked if you had a Facebook?" "Yeah, so what?" "Well, I did a little searching a few nights ago, and I ran across someone I think you should meet." The blonde pulled out her phone, sending a text. Seconds later, a quiet ring and vibration was heard from the hall. Alexis sat up, confused. "Courtney, who are you talking abo…?" What happened next caused the woman to trail off.

In walked in the last person Alexis thought she would see.

A young girl of Hispanic descent, about 15 or 16, stepped into the room. She had jet black wavy hair and blue eyes, and a smile on her face. Standing close behind her was an older, German-looking woman in her mid-forties. With red hair and blue eyes, she most certainly did not look as Hispanic as the girl in front of her. The said girl started to move her hands happily. **_Allie? You sure look different…_** The signals seemed to be in ASL rather than LSE.

"Ha-hang on," mumbled Alexis, who pulled out her phone and held it up, looking intently at the girl on her wallpaper. She was in complete disbelief. Slowly putting down the phone, the dark brunette girl took its place, roughly matching the picture. "Adriana? Mom?" Alexis ripped off the blanket of the hospital bed and dashed to her younger sister, embracing her tightly and starting to cry. Adriana held Alexis close, her own tears forming. "I thought you were dead," the redhead said to her mom hoarsely in-between crying. "Both of you…I missed you so much…" Alexis and Adriana stayed this way for a few minutes before the older daughter clung to her mother. Courtney bit her lip, watching the three reunite. She tried her hardest not to cry, but ended up shedding a few tears anyway. "This feels like one of those Lifetime movies…except in the end credits the girl doesn't ride a horse on the beach in slow motion while holding a Diet Coke with a lemon wedge in it and a straw."

The women got settled back into place, Courtney standing so Alexis's mother could sit in her chair, Adriana taking the other while Alexis got back into bed. Adriana began to sign.

**_I really missed you, too. Me and Mom moved to New Jersey a year ago, but after you turned 18 you got your own apartment and Grandma said she didn't know where you were because you didn't tell her! So we've been looking for you ever since. Thankfully, your friend here is probably one of the best friends you could ever have, so don't let her go. I got contacted by her on Facebook and she said she knew where you were. I didn't trust her at first, but after she showed me a picture of you and her, I knew it was you! Mom has been worried sick about you since the day you left. We don't live in this town, though; we live a few miles away, where Grandma is. I guess you're probably wondering about Dad, huh?_**

Alexis reluctantly signed yes. She wasn't sure if she wanted to waste her time on him. Adriana put her hands down, their mother lifting hers up. **_Do you remember that gunshot the night you left? Well…_**

_"Allie, you have to get out of here," the woman cried, holding her youngest child. "You still have my sister's address in that little notebook I gave you, don't you?" Alejandra nodded, crawling over to her mother. "Go. Go to her house, and from there, I want you to do something for me." Maria bit her lip before continuing. "There's no hope for Adriana out there in the world, that's why I want you to move. Move away. Your grandmother is in New Jersey; I want you to go there. Change your name, your hair, your eyes, do ANYTHING to make sure if your father ever came looking for you, he wouldn't recognize you." She was crying at this point. Alejandra objected at first, but hearing her father's footsteps accompanied by the cock of a gun and loading bullets, she quickly hugged her mother and sister goodbye. Alejandra was terrified to leave them behind, but she knew her mother knew what was best. Sprinting out of the house through the back door, Alejandra let out a shriek the moment she heard a single gunshot. She started to turn back, but Adriana was at the window, firmly signing no, tears running down her face. Running down the block, Alejandra almost got struck by a car dashing into an alleyway._

_Maria looked down at her husband, who was on the ground holding his shoulder. Maria had quickly wrestled with the armed man, her hands grabbing his wrists. And when he pulled the trigger, his wife had forced his hand to turn towards himself. The bullet nestled into Juan's shoulder, almost to the bone. The German woman snatched the gun away from him before he tried anything else. Juan scrambled towards Maria on his knees, punching her in the face a few times then shoving her away, hoping she would lose her grip on the weapon. To Maria's luck, she hadn't let go of the gun. Juan whipped out a pocketknife, stabbing Maria in the arm she was holding the gun in, causing her to scream. Using her other free hand she took the gun from her bleeding arm, the mother trembled, tears streaming down her face."Brennen in der Hölle," Maria whispered, looking into her husband's eyes before pointing the gun to his forehead and pulling the trigger one final time._

"Mom, you…shot him?" Alexis asked, her eyes widened. The mother sighed and nodded, looking down. "That's…**fucking badass**!" her daughter chirped. "You're not upset…?" Maria pondered. "**Fuck no**! I hated that douchebag!" Alexis laughed. Adriana was reading their lips, able to roughly make out what was going on. Courtney was leaned against a windowsill, a hand over her mouth, listening to it all. Alexis spotted Courtney then blushed. Taking a deep breath, the oldest sister started signing what she was saying while she spoke. "I have something I need to tell you both," Alexis said, looking Courtney in the eyes. The blonde blinked, not sure what Alexis wanted to say.

"I'm gay."

Maria looked blankly at her eldest daughter while taking in what she had been told. A few moments passed until the mom gave a small smile. "I'm happy for you," she said simply, causing Alexis to smile back. Adriana blinked a few times before turning her head around to look at Courtney. Looking back and forth between her and Alexis, Adriana burst into giggles, a blush creeping over her face. **_Allie, I didn't know this pretty girl was your -girlfriend-!_** Alexis felt her face flush. **_We're not dating, Adri!_** The redhead looked at Courtney then started signing in LSE. **_And I don't have a crush on her either! I just don't know how to ask. Shut up, brat!_** Adriana laughed, signing back**_. Just ask her! I think you do too have a crush on her!_** Alexis rolled her eyes, their mom the only other person understand the conversation between the two. It was painfully obvious she was trying not to chuckle.

"Alexis, do you want to come back with us to your grandmother's?" Maria asked after a while. Alexis frowned and looked down. _I don't really like the idea of leaving Courtney behind…_ Adriana clapped, signing "**_Please! Pretty please?_**" The mother and daughter beamed at Alexis, expecting an answer, preferably positive. Courtney looked away and out the window, avoiding Alexis's stare. The sun was going down, signaling the fact that night was just a few rays away.

"That sounds like a really good idea."

Courtney felt her heart drop, turning her head back to the woman on the bed. Alexis looked back and smiled. Before her mother could interject, she spoke up.

"But I can't. I want to stay here with someone I'd really miss if I left them behind. I'm sorry."

Maria smiled and got up. "I understand. Now, Adriana will give you her number so you two can be in touch. We live with your grandmother of course, which is only a train ride away. Don't hesitate to stop by whenever you feel like it, we have a lot of catching up to do. Your sister and I have to go catch a train now, but…" The mother leaned over and hugged her daughter tight. "Stay safe. I love you so much," she whispered. Adriana grabbed Alexis's phone and put her number in. After the mom was done hugging Alexis, Adriana did the same.

Courtney watched Maria and Adriana give their goodbyes. Maria thanked Courtney for making it possible to see her only other child again. Adriana hugged Courtney tight then signed**_, Allie is totally into you! She just won't admit it. Be careful not to get her mad about it, though! Thank you so much for everything you've done for us. I consider you one of my best friends now. Oh, and could you get Allie to get a damn Facebook already? Goodbye, Courtney!_**

**_I'll do my best. And thank you, I'll be sure to keep in touch over Facebook and make sure Alexis does too. Goodbye._** Courtney smiled and waved as Adriana went out the door with her mother.

Alexis got up from the bed and walked up to the blonde, blushing. "You have no idea how much that meant to me. And how much _you_ mean to me, now that you've helped get my life back together. Thank you. I mean it," she whispered, hugging Courtney. Courtney smiled and hugged back. "You're quite welcome, but you don't have to thank me. I just did what I thought was right."

The two women looked at each other, both blushing. "Does this mean we're dating, now?" Alexis giggled, giving a cheeky grin. "Only if you want it to," responded an equally giggly Courtney. She shut her eyes as Alexis gave her a long, soft kiss. "Well, I want it to. And for the record, I'm the man of the relationship," the redhead said, causing the blonde to laugh and nod. "Alright, Allie. Whatever you say."

* * *

Logan looked his girlfriend down, smiling sweetly. It was finally the day, the day of graduation. Louise stared back at her boyfriend, then started to giggle. The event in question called for formal dress, meaning all the boys were in dress shirts while the girls were mostly a variety of dresses and skirts with blouses. Louise had chosen a simple jade green dress with straps, while Logan just had a simple long sleeved dress shirt and slacks. "You look like a dork," Louise grinned, grabbing the folded graduation gowns and caps. "Why does it matter what we wear underneath if we're going to be wearing the gown the whole time?" Logan whined. Louise shrugged. "Were you going to keep it on for the performance?" she asked, handing him his cap and gown. "I hadn't really thought about that…I guess," Logan looked down at the clothes.

Going downstairs, the couple was greeted by the rest of the Belcher family, including Linda's parents and sister. Louise took Logan's hand and introduced him to Linda's side of the family. "Grandma, Grandpa, Gayle: This is Logan. He's my boyfriend, and he's graduating too," Louise said, wanting the pleasantries to be over already. "You look kind of old to be graduating high school, young man," Gloria looked Logan up and down. Linda piped up. "Mom! He looks fine," she said, ushering her parents to the doorway. "I'm gonna go with my parents in their car, Bobby. Gayle, you comin'?"

Gayle was looking at Logan in a strange manner. "You look…like one of Linda's old boyfriends. He was a male strip-" "Okay, sweetie honey, that's enough!" Linda swooped in, laughing nervously and covering her sister's mouth before hissing "get in the car" and going out the door. "Wait, you…had a male stripper for a…?" Bob said quietly to himself.

Everyone in the room was basically dressed casually, including Gene and Scott. "Louise, can I talk to you?" Bob asked, putting a hand on his daughter's shoulder. "What's up, dad?" Louise looked confused. "I just wanted to tell you how proud I am of you," the cook smiled. Louise hugged Bob, smiling back. "Thanks, Dad."

"C'mon already! I want to watch fat girls trip on their heels and flop to the ground like a fish!" Gene yelled, dragging Louise and Logan outside. Tina, Bob, and Scott followed behind.

* * *

The ceremony itself lasted for 2 hours but it felt like 20 to Louise. She started getting impatient after receiving her diploma; having a last name that started early in the alphabet was a perk when it came to calling names in order. At the start of the graduation ceremony, the audience had been asked to not use any party favors that would cause noise when the student had their diploma. Of course, Belchers being Belchers, they hooted and hollered. At one point Louise could have sworn she heard her mother let out an "ALRIIIGHT!" as she walked down the ramp that the students would exit the stage from. Alexis (who now had dyed her hair black) and Courtney, along with Rudy, also got their diplomas. Tina had invited Jimmy Jr to tag along with her, although he would have gone regardless considering his twin brothers were also graduating. Jimmy Pesto sat with his ex-wife, across the gymnasium from Bob and the rest of the Belcher clan. Every so often Bob would catch Jimmy's eye and put an arm around Linda, with a huge smug look on his face. It was almost as if he was taunting the Italian. Jimmy tried his best to keep his cool, no matter how angry he got.

With all the diplomas given out to each student, Logan, Gene, and Scott took the stage, quickly setting up their equipment. Soon after, the trio had already started to play. Logan taught Scott guitar, and while he hadn't mastered it quite yet, it was good enough for backing.

Scott almost immediately started rapping. "**_I got a girlfriend, only she don't know it yet! I got a six string best friend, sleeps with a broken neck. I want to make my mark, change the world, with this flow. But, all this doubt in my head, It won't let me go!_**"

Logan began to sing near the end of Scott's verse, looking at the crowd, trying to find someone. "**_Can't you see I want to lock my door and shut out all the world surrounding me? Safe from the problems and the pressures caused by insecurities!_**" "**_Get up! Get up! Let the good times roll! Get up! Get up! Take my heart and my soul! Get up! Get up! Let the good times roll! On and on and on and on…_**"While him and Scott took turns singing (or rapping, in Scott's case), Logan desperately looked for the only person related to him that would have shown up. What if he didn't come? Logan was positive that his mom had no interest in being a part of his life anymore. If she knew he was dating Louise, she would have had a fit. After a minute or two of playing, the band had already reached the very last repeat of the chorus. The platinum blonde almost missed his cue while thinking of the past month.

**_Feel like everybody else just needs to see through different eyes_**

_Alexis looked at the girl before gently lifting the tacky (or at least to her) hipster glasses off of Courtney's face._

**_From the outside looking in, we shout the anthem of our lives_**

_"Thank you, Gene. Nobody – and I mean nobody – has ever stood up for me like that before," Scott said softly._

**_Just like everybody else, I feel the pain each time I try_**

_Tina felt her eyes tear up from fear split seconds before she felt two arms catching her, the owner almost falling forward from the impact, but he managed to stay upright._

**_But I'll fight the bitter end to shout the anthem_**

_Logan angrily yelled as teardrops hit the warm blanket, "Because I'm in fucking love with her! I love her, Mom!"_

**_the anthem of our lives_**

_"I love him, okay?! Shut your face! If you say anything about this to anyone I swear to god I will end you!"_

**_the anthem, the anthem of our lives_**

_"Louise, I'm in love with you!" he shouted over the chatter of the crowd, his face still red._

**_the anthem of our lives_**

_"I love you, Logan," she said quietly. "I love you, too, Louise," Logan kissed the back of her head._

* * *

**Can you come to the restaurant in ten minutes? And wear your prom dress. No make-up, no hat, just you.**

Louise tossed aside her phone and made her way down the stairs, confused as hell. She of course kept her hat on, but why did he want her to wear her prom dress? Hours earlier, the two had graduated from high school. _They said their goodbyes to their friends and fellow classmates, and faced the harsh reality that they would probably never see them again. Louise wasn't too upset. Alexis apologized to her, which was good. However, it would take some time to trust Alexis again. Louise hugged Rudy goodbye. "Hey, we're going up-state to a cabin near the beach in the woods in a few weeks. It's a campground. Wanna bring Jenny?" Louise smiled. "I'd rather bring myself. Jenny and I aren't involved with each other anymore. But, yeah, that sounds fun, here's my number," Rudy said as he borrowed a pen from someone and wrote it on Louise's palm. _

_Logan's father had shown with another man who claimed the two men were "just friends," but Logan knew better. "I'm sort of glad Mom isn't here," Logan said. "Why?" his father asked. "Because I don't need her in my life if she's going to try to change me." The blonde smiled. Linda and Bob smothered their daughter in praises and compliments (and kisses, but only from Linda) while Tina congratulated the Pesto twins with a sweet grin and hugs. Jimmy Jr wasn't even sure Tina had even cared about them until now. She never talked to them unless she had to. But now he felt he knew that she really did care._

_Jimmy and Bob squabbled as usual about whose kids were smarter. Gene and Scott were with Scott's mom, the first time that she had met the musician. Courtney was with her dad. Alexis stood alone, watching the blonde woman celebrate with her dad. Her thoughts of sorrow were interrupted by a blur of black and blue clinging to her side. Looking over, Alexis saw her sister. "You came?" Alexis said, mouthing the words as well as she could so Adriana would understand. The deaf girl nodded then hugged her sister tighter. The two girls hugged and chatted, their mom and grandmother nearby as well._

Louise stepped inside the restaurant that she considered a second home. The inside of the burger restaurant was dark, the light dimmed. There was Logan, all by himself and dressed in a mahogany suit. There were pink Christmas lights strung around the top of the walls. It seemed cheesy, but for some reason the atmosphere of the eatery decked in this way comforted Louise. She stood in front of Logan.

"Logan, what the crap are you doing?" she asked, throwing her hat off. Logan laughed. "Well, I realized you and I never got to go to prom with each other. So, this is to make up for it. Your dad was a little tough to convince, but I managed, with Linda's help," he said softly, putting his hands on the woman's hips. "Gene wanted to DJ, but I told him no. This is strictly you and me."

Louise was smiling, ignoring her watery eyes. She swung her arms around Logan's shoulders and rested her head on his chest. Logan smiled, kissing the top of her head and leaning over to the counter which had Logan's laptop on it. Pressing enter, Logan held Louise close as he shut his eyes and listened to the song he believed was secretly written just for the pink bunny hat wearing trickster.

**_I'm in love with the girl I hate_**

**_She enjoys pointing out every bad thing about me_**

**_I'm in love with a critic and a skeptic, a traitor_**

**_I'd trade her in a second_**


End file.
